Coming Back
by LuvversLuvvie
Summary: Naruto had spent his entire adult life in Suna, avoiding the place he had run away from as a teenager. But now, years later, he is told that he is needed back at home. AU. SasuNaru.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**My inner muse wants me to write this, so write this I shall! I'll warn you now: the beginning is a little slow. Er, a **_**lot**_** slow. But it is like that on purpose, I swear! Things will definitely progress as the story goes on, so hold out with me, kay?**

**Summary: Naruto had spent his entire adult life in Suna, avoiding the place he had run away from as a teenager. But now, years later, he is told that he is needed back at home. AU. SasuNaru.**

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Naruto Uzumaki let loose a disgruntled sigh as he heard what sounded like his door being assaulted by rocks. It was quite annoying.

Here he was, _trying_ to do his work—like, actually being productive instead of searching the internet or doodling some picture when his laptop was confiscated from him for not doing his work—while listening to his inspiration playlist, when all of a sudden his poor apartment door was attacked. He even turned down his music to make sure that the noises weren't the drums!

Didn't the person intent on maiming his door know how rude they were being? What kind of respectable person went around assaulting doors in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday? A Sunday maybe, or even a Monday for kicks, but a _Thursday_? Blasphemy.

Naruto didn't even order any pizza. So unless this was a surprise bad porno flick—of which he didn't really have a problem participating in—Naruto wasn't expecting any visitors.

Which just made the mysterious door-knocker all the more rude.

Surprise, surprise. The door was being knocked even louder. The rude door-knocker must have been a psychic.

"Alright, _ALRIGHT_ ALREADY! I'm coming!" Naruto shouted across his apartment.

As he stood up from his desk, Naruto made sure to save the document he had been working on before the person beating his door decided that in the middle of the afternoon on a _Thursday_ was just a GRAND time for attacking inanimate objects.

The last time he had forgotten to save after leaving his laptop for an extended period of time, the laptop battery ran out on him and deleted his work! And his roommate and his assistant shouted at him; well, his assistant did…his roommate more of _glared_ than shouted.

After everything was saved, Naruto wandered out of his room. He was wearing his lazy clothes, or more specifically: his _roommate's_ lazy clothes since they were just so damn comfy. Naruto would have invested in the same pair of black sweatpants and black wife beater, but he would have felt too much like a Goth; which was why he spruced up the lazy outfit with his favorite green froggy slippers.

He knew his outfit wasn't the most attractive one around, but it was a _Thursday_ afternoon and he wasn't expecting anyone to visit him!

As he shuffled down the hallway, the noisy knocking just got louder and he groaned.

Naruto yanked the door open as he practically shouted, "You better have a good reason for assaulting my door! I was working, you know, and I was finally getting into the swing of things when—"

Naruto stopped talking as soon as he saw just who he was shouting at and simply let his jaw hang.

The person who was beating his door was Sakura! Sakura Haruno!

Sakura looked surprised to see Naruto as well, though she was not nearly as expressive about it as Naruto was, and she scrunched her face into an apologetic smile as she lowered her fist.

"Sorry, but I, uh," Sakura forced an awkward laugh, "I knocked a little earlier and there was no reply…and I was going to leave but then I heard music and assumed that you couldn't hear me over that. So I knocked just a little bit louder."

Naruto could only stare; thought that a fly could probably zoom into the back of his throat or that Sakura's term for a '_little_' louder apparently meant treating his door like a punching bag did not cross his mind.

The only thing that Naruto could think about was that Sakura—_SAKURA HARUNO_—was in Suna, at his apartment building, standing on his new welcome mat, right in front of him.

Never in his wildest imaginings did he think this would be happening! Now even when one of his co-workers offered him 'special brownies' and he learned that 'special' did not mean 'made with love'.

Then Sakura gave a tired sort of smile and shook her head a little, "You'll swallow a fly if you keep your mouth open like that," she said as she reached up to manually close Naruto's mouth for him.

He could feel that as she closed his mouth for him, Sakura's thumb brushed on three horizontal scars on one of his cheeks. He automatically flinched a little and jerked his head away.

Sakura's gentle hand closing his mouth for him was what finally convinced Naruto that this was real.

That the person in front of him was actually Sakura Haruno; someone he had never thought he would see again, much less in Suna. He thought that the last he had seen of her was back in his old hometown, in Konoha.

The first thing that jumped out at Naruto was Sakura's pink hair. It was long again. The last time Naruto saw Sakura, her hair had been short, at least to her shoulders. That was considered long in Naruto's books, but he still remembered having a bruise on his shoulder for about a week when he voiced that opinion.

There was also no headband in her hair. Naruto was no hair accessories expert, but there was definitely a lack of his pink-haired friend's signature accessory. At least, he assumed that it was still her signature accessory; he had rarely seen her without it. But then again, this was the first time in a very long time that he was seeing her again.

Sakura rolled her green eyes with a smile and asked, "Well aren't you going to invite me in? It's rude to make a lady wait, you know."

Naruto could only nod numbly. He stood aside as he opened the door wider.

Sakura smiled at him and moved to pick up a pink bag next to her while it looked like she was juggling with a jacket in her arms and a pink purse. That was when Naruto noticed the bag's existence, and he wordlessly bent to pick it up for her.

Sakura looked up at him and smiled again as she thanked him. Her eyes lingered on his scars and Naruto reminded himself that this was the first time she—and anyone from back in Konoha—had seen his new cheek accessories.

Again, Naruto could only nod numbly. This time, what occupied his mind was how he had noticed how pale Sakura was in comparison to himself when their arms cross when he picked up the bag for her.

He had always known that Sakura was pale, he even had a bruise on his chest for when he pointed it out one time when they were children playing at the pool. Maybe it was the vast amount of time spent apart, or maybe it was Naruto being used to seeing people as tan if not tanner than he in Suna's warm climate, but Sakura's paleness was definitely more noticeable than it had ever been before.

It didn't help that she was wearing a white button up shirt with a few less buttons doing their job near the chest so Naruto could see a white undershirt and the sleeves were rolled up.

Naruto led her into his apartment to the living room and set her bag next to the couch, which Sakura set her jacket on as well.

The two stood in an awkward silence of sorts. Naruto was still trying to wrap his mind around how someone from Konoha—_SAKURA HARUNO_—was in his living room, in his apartment, in Suna.

Sakura was looking around Naruto's apartment from where she stood. It was a little obvious that she was restraining herself from staring at Naruto, and his whisker-like scars.

After a considerable amount of time, she faced Naruto again with a small, awkward smile on her face as she said, "Thanks for putting on the air conditioning. I had always heard that Suna was like a desert, but I didn't think it would be _that_ hot, so I just grabbed a light jacket since I also always heard that airplanes and airports are cold."

Not exactly sure what to say to someone he hadn't seen in years after leaving his hometown, Naruto opted for the awkward small talk, "You get used to it. And…er…you're welcome? I always put the air conditioning a little colder than usual whenever I work as a way to force me to be more productive, I guess…"

"Working? From home?" Sakura asked. Naruto was about to answer, but then she spoke again, "Oh that's RIGHT! You're an author now!"

"You knew?" Naruto asked, surprised. He was under the impression that his books were low key, or at least that no one from Konoha would recognize that they were his works since he changed his name.

Sakura shrugged and waved her hand in a vague gesture and said, "Lee told me."

"Lee…" Naruto mumbled as he looked away. Lee was one of the very few people from Konoha that he kept in touch with, or at least, spoke to on rare occasions. The old friend from home had seen Naruto's picture on one of Naruto's books after it had released to book stores and had tracked Naruto down. Ever since then, Lee would call and once in a while Naruto would return the call.

"Yeah…" Sakura agreed as she too looked away from the other. She wrapped one arm around herself; something Naruto recognized as a nervous gesture she always had whenever she had something important to say but didn't know how to bring it up.

In the past, Naruto would immediately jump on whatever subject Sakura needed to talk about, and trying to fix things for her. He would always insist that she could talk about anything to him, since she was one of his most precious people.

But now, Naruto was in no hurry to bring up any heavy subjects. He knew from the very fact that Sakura was in Suna at all meant something serious, since she had made no effort in the past years—ever since Naruto had left Konoha—to even communicate with him.

He knew that it was selfish of him, and that it was probably took a lot for Sakura to come all the way to Suna for Naruto. But it was taking a lot out of Naruto too just to have a large piece of the past he had been successfully—somewhat—avoiding for years.

"Yeah…but…uh…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in an effort to waste more time, "I wasn't really working. Well, I was…but it wasn't real work."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, looking at him again.

"Uh…well…I need to start writing a new book soon, so I'm brainstorming for a couple of ideas." Naruto answered.

"Brainstorming?" Sakura looked a little confused.

"Yeah…well…" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck again, "I already wrote about the bigger stories I've had in my head for a while. So now I gotta think of new ones while I expand on little plot bunnies."

Sakura smiled warmly, "You always had multiple story ideas in that blonde head of yours ever since we were kids, so it shouldn't be too hard."

Naruto chuckled nervously as he continued to rub the back of his neck. The conversation was heading into dangerous territory again: he had no desire to talk about 'the good ol' days'.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Naruto hurried to ask.

"What?" Sakura asked, a little thrown off by the sudden change in topic.

"Drink?" Naruto repeated, turning his body to show that he was going to the kitchen.

"Oh…" Sakura nodded as she looked down on the ground, "water would be nice."

Naruto nodded, "Ice? Or no ice?"

Sakura shrugged and said, "Ice," in a vague tone. Her mind was wandering, which was just fine with Naruto as long as it prolonged whatever she came to talk about.

It wasn't as if Naruto was now a cold person who rejected anything and everything from his old hometown. It was just that he had little to no desire to even think about it. And if he did, he wanted it to be on his own terms. But then a large piece of home found him in Suna and he knew that it wasn't because he was being congratulated on leaving.

Naruto took his time preparing Sakura's drink. He got her one of his fancy glasses; not because he wanted to show off how well he had been living since leaving Konoha, but rather because it was in the back of the shelf and took more time to get.

Naruto took his time with the ice, too. He chose the biggest ice cubes from the tray and even refilled it since he only had three fourths of the ice tray full afterwards and that simply would not do.

He also got water from his roommate's water purifier in the refrigerator. He swore that he would never tease his roommate again for not simply drinking tap water because it took more time to get out the purifier than turning the faucet.

He returned to the living room with Sakura's glass of water and with a beer for himself. He could tell that he would need it to take the edge off of whatever Sakura had to say.

When he saw Sakura, he noticed that she was no longer standing but rather sitting on the couch that he had placed her bag next to. She appeared to be studying his living room.

Naruto cleared his throat, making Sakura jump a little bit. He mumbled a small apology and handed her the fancy glass of water and gesturing towards the coaster pile on the coffee table.

Sakura smiled and took a sip of water.

Naruto sat down on a chair on another side of the coffee table and opened his beer before he too took a sip. But the difference was the he didn't stop at just one.

The silence was palpable.

Sakura cleared her throat. "There's, uh," she gestured vaguely at the walls, "there's less pictures than your old apartment."

"My what?" Naruto asked, a little confused. In his last apartment, there wasn't any room for pictures on the wall since his bookshelves took up most of the wall space. Unlike his old mentor, he actually used _real_ research for what he was writing instead of spying on women. Now that he had a roommate and could afford a bigger place, he was able to put about two—roommate approved—pictures of scenery on the walls.

"Your old apartment…" Sakura repeated, "back in—"

"Oh right." Naruto interrupted her and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, well…there's a nice color on the walls this time," he tried to joke.

"Oh…" Sakura said.

Naruto felt a little bad. It was obvious that she was running out of things to say before the important thing was coming up and that was her grasping at small talk topics. Even so, he refused to talk about Konoha freely, even when someone from Konoha was sitting on his couch.

"My roommate," Naruto announced a little suddenly, "didn't want too much clutter on the walls. So he only allowed two big pictures and those were the ones he approved of."

"You have a roommate?" Sakura asked, sounding a surprised.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah…he took it upon himself to make sure that I worked and the easiest and most reliable way he could think of was to move in together."

"Oh, so you work together," Sakura sounded interested, but still distracted. Probably from whatever big thing she came all the way to Suna to talk about.

"Nah, he works in government. But we've been friends since before that and along the way he took it upon himself to be my manager." Naruto replied, trying to prolong the conversation in safe waters as long as possible.

"So you have a manager who works in government?" Sakura summarized.

Naruto squinted his eyes, "If you want to call it that. I just say that he's a pain in my ass. Even more so than my assistant."

"You have an assistant, too?" Sakura asked; a little more interested than before.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, she's great. She does the tedious stuff like copying down my writing from notebooks to my laptop so I can take my writing with me on the go. But she keeps hounding me to do my work faster or whatever and brings my roommate into things when she feels that I'm not working fast enough."

"Oh really," Sakura said, taking another sip of water.

"Plus she's totally in love with my roommate," Naruto rolled his eyes.

"She is?" Sakura asked.

"Totally. Complete with fawning over him at times and blocking out what I say to agree with him. I feel like a third wheel whenever she's in one of her love fits. It was almost as bad as when y—" Naruto cut himself off abruptly.

He refused to look anywhere near Sakura. He was dangerously close to talking about when they were children in Konoha.

Sakura must have picked up on what he almost spoke about, because she cupped her fancy glass of water in her lap and stared down at it.

"Naruto…"she paused, "I didn't come to Suna just to catch up."

Naruto almost rolled his eyes. It was _pretty_ obvious that Sakura did not come for an idle chat with an old estranged friend. But he didn't and allowed her to continue and took another swig of beer.

"I came…to ask you to come back to Konoha," Sakura said looking back up at Naruto.

Naruto paused mid-sip.

Sure, he was expecting something along those lines from the moment Sakura had wrapped an arm around herself—either that or to announce someone had died, he wasn't sure which one he was dreading more—but to hear it out loud was something else entirely.

Naruto lowered his beer, "Sakura…" he said gingerly, trying to figure out the most polite way of saying 'no way in hell'.

But Sakura cut him off, "Please? I wouldn't ask if it wasn't for an _important_ reason!"

Naruto sighed and stared at the ceiling for a moment. He supposed what she was saying was true; especially since she made no effort to just chat with him ever since he left Konoha.

"So what's the important reason?" Naruto asked, still staring at the ceiling.

There was a pause, so Naruto faced her once again. Sakura was biting her lip before she hesitantly said, "…It's Sasuke—"

Naruto physically cut her off by abruptly standing.

The hand that was not holding his beer flew to his head.

If he wasn't sure when Sakura asked him to come back then he was sure as hell now: he'd rather hear that someone had died.

"No," Naruto stated as he turned away from Sakura.

"But Naruto—"

"No!" Naruto said in a firmer voice. Even if he had even considered thinking about coming back if he thought that the reason was truly _very_ important, all of that was out of the window now.

"He really needs you, Naruto!" Sakura tried reasoning.

"I really doubt that, Sakura!" Naruto shot back.

"But it's true!" Sakura paused, and before Naruto could tell her just how wrong her 'truth' was, she said in a quieter voice, "Itachi died a few weeks ago…"

Naruto took a deep breath to calm down. "I know…"

"You knew?!" Sakura asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

Naruto didn't turn to face her, but he nodded confirmation at the wall to the side of them.

"Wha—how?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged and said, "Lee told me."

"Lee!" Sakura sounded angry. Though angry at Lee for telling Naruto before she could or angry at losing a portion of her trump card, Naruto couldn't tell.

Naruto was silent as Sakura composed herself behind him. He knew that he would never return to Konoha and nothing she had to say would change his mind, but he figured that he would let Sakura say her piece so she wouldn't send others to fail as well in case she felt like she hadn't tried hard enough.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, but he didn't turn around.

"He's having a really hard time dealing with everything," Sakura informed Naruto quietly.

"He's an Uchiha," Naruto reminded her somewhat coldly, "that means that he'll bury it all inside while outside he remains the friggin' ice prince."

"But what happens when he bottles too much in?" Sakura persisted, probably trying to appeal to the side of Naruto that new Sasuke best.

Naruto threw his hands in the air in exasperation and said, "Then he'll try to remove himself from society where he can snap in isolation or he'll beat the shit outa the person who won't let him since he's an Uchiha!"

"What does being an Uchiha have to do with this, Naruto Namikaze?" Sakura demanded. Naruto immediately noticed that Sakura had called him 'Namikaze' and realized that she had no idea that he had changed his name when he left Konoha.

"It's Uzumaki!" Naruto corrected her.

"Naruto…Sasuke needs you," Sakura said, ignoring what Naruto had told her about his name change.

"Again, I seriously doubt that. He made it VERY clear that he never wanted to see me again," Naruto told her as he crossed his arms and glared at the wall in front of him.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed before Sakura whispered, "He…he asked for you…"

That made Naruto pause again.

He took a step away from Sakura and turned around to face her. "What did you say?" he asked her incredulously.

Sakura paused and her eyes darted to everywhere but Naruto as she repeated hesitantly, "He asked for you…"

Naruto glared at her—without malice as he frustrated but did not want to aim it at Sakura specifically—and said, "You're lying to me."

"No, I'm not!" Sakura defended, her green eyes widening at the accusation. But Naruto recognized that hey widened in a slight horror that always used to happen whenever Naruto caught Sakura lying when they were children.

"Sakura Haruno, do not forget who you are talking to. I can tell when you are lying to me," Naruto reminded her.

Sakura's eyes darted to different places to avoid Naruto again.

"And you and I _both_ know that _Mr. Uchiha_ would never openly _ask_ for help. _Especially_ for ME," said Naruto.

Sakura nodded and whispered, "You're right."

"Of course I am," Naruto agreed.

"He didn't OPENLY ask for you, but…" Sakura paused and purposefully looked away.

Bitch.

Naruto sighed and took the bait, "But?"

Sakura's green eyes met Naruto's blue eyes as she said, "He mumbled 'idiot' in his sleep."

Naruto paused. Sakura was saying way too many things to make him pause today. Bitch.

There were too many implications in that sentence, each making Naruto regret opening the door in the first place. Why would Sasuke be mumbling what he had always called Naruto in his sleep? And more importantly: why did Sakura know what Sasuke was mumbling? The Sasuke Naruto knew would never, ever tell people whether or not he was mumbling; much less _what_ he mumbled. So that meant that Sakura was there when Sasuke was asleep…but Sasuke didn't let anyone near him when he slept unless he had to, or unless they were sharing a bed…

The implications were a little too much for Naruto to deal with, so he chose for the easiest way and retorted, "How do you even know that he meant me? If you hadn't noticed, Sakura, he considers a LOT of people as idiots."

"He meant you," Sakura insisted, "He _always_ meant you!"

Naruto looked away from her, trying to think of people that Sasuke could have been referring to. Maybe Kiba pissed Sasuke off somehow, probably with Akamaru. That had always left lingering frustration with the Uchiha. Or Neji was getting high-and-mighty with principles and morals that annoyed Sasuke. Or maybe Chouji made a mess of himself while eating way too much, which would grate on Sasuke's nerves. Or maybe Shino's bug collection got loose! Or Shikamaru ignored him in favor of the clouds! Or Lee got too excitable and started to gossip! Fucking Lee…

"Naruto…you _know_ what Sasuke mumbling in his sleep means…" said Sakura as she held her gaze.

Naruto shook his head, even though in all actuality, he knew what she was talking about.

Sasuke would only mumble in his sleep if something was overwhelming him. It used to be the source of much teasing from Naruto, one of the only people who would actually hear it—asides from Itachi—but then they quickly learned to identify it as a warning sign that Sasuke was getting close to snapping.

Sakura walked back to the couch and grabbed something from her bag.

"Here," she held out an envelope, "it's a ticket back to Konoha."

Naruto immediately shook his head and backed away from her, "I already told you, I'm not going back."

"But he needs you, Naruto Namikaze! Itachi is dead," Sakura reminded Naruto, using his former last name to show how serious she was.

He felt bad about that, he truly did, but Naruto still shook his head 'no' and whispered, "Uzumaki…"

"It's his brother…" Sakura choked out as she pressed the envelope to her chest.

Naruto sighed, frustrated. He hated it when Sakura cried, always had, but he wouldn't let that sway him. He swore years ago that he would never go back to Konoha. Especially if he knew that Sasuke Uchiha was still there.

He didn't want to be the bad guy, but going back to Konoha was NOT an option.

He walked forwards and pulled Sakura into a comforting embrace and let her cry into his shirt. Er, his _roommate's_ shirt…he should wash it before his roommate finds out about it. Or worse…his assistant discovering that another woman had cried into his roommate's shirt!

Naruto ran his hand over Sakura's pink hair and hoped that she would be finished crying soon. He really couldn't stand it when people cried, especially women, and especially Sakura.

Sakura started to mumble stuff into his chest as she cried. Naruto missed the first part because of how garbled the words were and how she was talking into his chest, but soon enough he heard what she was saying, "…and I don't know what to do! He wasn't even like this when his parents died!"

A pang of guilt hit Naruto. He had heard that Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha had died a couple of years after he had left. He had wanted to return then when Lee had told him about it, but the memory of Sasuke telling him to never return kept running through his mind…so he stayed away.

"…He's grown even more distant!" Sakura continued, but this time looking up at Naruto as tears fell from her eyes, "He barely acknowledges anybody, and even when he does it is only a grunt if they are lucky!"

Naruto had the urge to roll his eyes. It didn't take much to make Sasuke go uber-emo like that. But this was serious, as was indicated by Sakura's tears.

"So when he started calling for you, I jumped at the opportunity. I took the day off from work so that I could book a flight, and spent a lot of my savings for the tickets plus the return ticket for you! But it'll be worth it because I know you'll know what to do! When you come back, everything will get better! It'll be just like they used to be!" Sakura sounded somewhat hysterical in Naruto's opinion.

Naruto could only give her a sad, somewhat pitying look, full of apologies.

Sakura's smile from when she was describing how everything would be 'just like they used to be' faded as she searched Naruto's eyes. "No…" she whispered.

Naruto paused a moment, before saying, "I'm sorry, Sakura."

"No!" Sakura repeated, grabbing onto Naruto's shirt.

Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head sadly.

"NO! But you HAVE to come back! Sasuke was calling for you!" Sakura pleaded, shaking the shirt she had grasped in her fists.

"Sakura…" Naruto grabbed hold of her hands and held them in place, "even _if_ we pretended that Sasuke actually _was_ calling for me, it wouldn't matter. Even if I came back, which I'm not, I can guarantee you that he wouldn't appreciate it in the slightest. He'd just send me back within a minute and demand to know who even thought about bringing me back there. Then we wouldn't have to worry about him snapping and beating some random person, because he'd just go after whoever thought it was a great idea to bring me back to Konoha. Which would be you."

Sakura shook her head, "But you'd be back, and you would knock him back into place! You know you were the only person to ever be able to do that!"

Naruto looked away and shook his head. While it was true that Naruto was the only peer who stood up to Sasuke, it was not true that Naruto was the _only_ one that could. But it wasn't a valid argument anymore because the other people were Itachi, and Sasuke's parents.

Naruto took a little longer than before, but he shook his head again and whispered, "I can't go back there."

Sakura backed away from him and turned around.

Then she walked over the couch and grabbed her bag, purse, and jacket.

Without turning around, she announced, "The ticket is for a flight back to Konoha at eight A.M. At least consider coming back, you owe us that much." She placed the ticket on the coffee table and walked out of the door.

Naruto wanted to scream in frustration at her words.

HE owed _THEM_?! How the hell did Sakura assume that in that pink head of hers?

Naruto had been gone for _YEARS_! TEN YEARS! _Ten_ years since he had been in Konoha, and not ONE of his friends went out to search for him! Not even Lee, who only called!

He was only seven-friggin'-TEEN when he was told to leave! He was still technically a CHILD! But Naruto was only an orphan, so who would care if the parent-less child left?

When he left, everyone was either glad that he was gone or hadn't even noticed at all! Only three people in all of Konoha bothered to contact him after he left! And two of them understood completely why he was never going to return! The other was Lee.

But other than that, NO ONE bothered to contact him!

Naruto knew that he had changed his name from Naruto Namikaze to Naruto Uzumaki, but he also knew that it wasn't _that_ big of a stretch. Anyone who _truly _wanted to contact him could have easily found out that the orphan was using his mother's maiden name instead of his father's last name. Even LEE could do it! His parents may have died before Naruto could remember much about them, but he knew that they were influential people in Konoha and it would not have been hard to guess what name Naruto was using.

So how the hell was that _'owing_' anybody anything? If anything, THEY owed NARUTO an APOLOGY!

No one was on his side when he had left! No one called Sasuke out when he let it known that he decided that Naruto wasn't welcome in Konoha anymore!

So what if the bastard was having a rough couple of weeks without his brother? Naruto had been having a rough couple of YEARS without ANYBODY!

It was infuriating how Sakura assumed that she could just barge into Naruto's life after ten years and assume that he'd follow her wherever she told him to go all willy-nilly. And how she thought that the way to appeal to Naruto was to bring up SASUKE?

No. Not in a million years.

He had sworn—_sworn_—that he would never return to Konoha. Not after what had happened. Naruto could never forget what had happened on _that_ day. He couldn't forget. He had a physical reminder of _that_ day that he had to see when he looked in the mirror every day!

It wasn't fair of Sakura to ask something like this of Naruto! If she needed money, then he might have been willing. After all, he was doing pretty well for himself being a published author of four books. The only reason, really, that Naruto was still living with a roommate was because of his roommate's insistence and because Naruto knew he'd be too lonely without someone nearby, like he was in Konoha.

She could of asked for practically anything in the world, but nooooooooooo, she had to choose the ONE thing Naruto refused to do! Then she had the audacity to say that he '_owed_' it to her?!

In the middle of attempting to _not_ rip his hair out of his head, Naruto heard the door opening.

He looked up, dreading to see Sakura, when instead he was relieved to see his roommate!

Gaara Sabaku was placing the keys on their keys rack before he glared at Naruto with his green eyes lined in black eye-liner.

"You forgot to lock the door again," Gaara accused. His glare intensified as he commented, "And you are wearing my clothes again."

Normally, Naruto would have insisted that it wasn't his fault, and that he needed to be surrounded in comfort if he wanted to get any real work done. But he wasn't in the mood. It was taking a lot to not explode from all the pent up frustration Sakura left him with.

Gaara must have picked up on that, because he demanded to know, "What?"

Such a nice guy, that Gaara. Always sugar-coating his questions. Naruto was lucky to have a friend like him.

"Don't make me beat it out of you," Gaara warned. Naruto should have been flattered. Normally, Gaara would ask once—if at all—and leave it alone if he wasn't answered immediately.

Then Gaara appeared, magically, like sand in the wind and all that jazzy stuff, in front of Naruto. Then he glared again.

"You weren't avoiding work again, have you?" he accused.

Naruto looked down and shook his head. He wasn't sure if he could tell Gaara…he never went into specifics about _why_ he left Konoha, ever. All he would really say was that he wasn't going back and that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Then what is it?" Gaara practically growled. Naruto almost forgot how protective over him that Gaara got sometimes. It was sweet, really, once he stopped Gaara from committing a mass murder and kicked his ass, the two had become inseparable.

"It's just that…" Naruto bit his lip, he wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything.

Gaara continued to glare. A silent indication that he was not going to let this go until Naruto spilled the beans.

Naruto sighed and said, "An old friend came to visit me…from Konoha."

Gaara's eyes widened a little bit, but that was just because he was not glaring as much anymore. He was still glaring anyway, so Naruto knew that he needed to continue.

"She…she wanted me to go back," Naruto looked away and his eyes landed on the envelope on the coffee table.

Gaara's eyes followed Naruto's, then asked, "Are you?"

"No!" Naruto answered immediately, "Yes…maybe…I don't know…it's complicated!"

"So un-complicate it," Gaara challenged as he picked up the envelope to inspect it.

"You don't get it!" Naruto insisted as he reached for the envelope in Gaara's hands.

"Because you won't talk about it," Gaara retorted as he walked to the couch.

Naruto stayed where he was, "Because it's too hard!"

"Bullshit." Gaara glared again, "Are you not the one who got into a community college by passing a high school equivalency exam because someone couldn't finish their senior year?"

"Yeah, but—"

"And are you not the same someone who signed on with a publishing company while you were still in that community college just two years after coming here?"

"You helped—"

"And are you not the same person who has published a new book every two years since then?"

"YES! But this is completely different!" Naruto insisted, using both hands to grab onto his head.

"Why?" Gaara demanded.

"Because I knew I had to make a new life here! Because I can't ever go back to that place!" Naruto insisted.

"Why?" Gaara repeated as he opened the envelope.

"Because…because…" Naruto couldn't say the real reason he had left.

He hadn't old anybody, and he was sure that neither did Sasuke. No matter how much he hated Sasuke, Naruto trusted that not even the bastard would tell people the real reason why they had fought, or the true extent to which it had extended.

Gaara glared at Naruto…or stared…it was hard to tell with Gaara and his lack of eyebrows. It wasn't a frown, though, because the red tattoo of the kanji of 'love' on his forehead wasn't furrowed.

Naruto sighed. He would tell the truth, but just a portion, "I told my best friend about how I'm…"

"Gay," Gaara supplied.

Naruto nodded, "And they weren't happy about it. So we fought; fists and all. And after he beat me, he told me to leave and never come back."

Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed. "Sounds melodramatic."

Naruto sighed, "I told you, you wouldn't understand."

"Oh, I understand," Gaara said, "I understand that you were given a choice to stay and fight or leave as a coward."

Naruto groaned in frustration, "There's more to it than that!"

"Such as?" Gaara asked as he examined the plane ticket.

Naruto slumped into a chair and held his head, "It wasn't just my best friend, but it was _everyone_!"

"I highly doubt that," Gaara deadpanned.

Naruto needed Gaara to understand, so he asked, "Remember before I met you, and how the entire city was against you?"

Gaara paused, much like Naruto did while Sakura was over, and nodded once darkly.

Naruto looked up at Gaara and said, "It was like that, except it was only rumors so I couldn't fight back. And the one person I thought I could rely on kicked my ass for even asking."

Gaara nodded again. After a moment, he asked, "Then why are you considering going back?"

"Wait—what?" Naruto asked, surprised by what Gaara had said.

Gaara stared at him for a moment before saying, "When I first asked you if you were going back, you said 'maybe'."

"I also said no!" Naruto defended, sticking his nose in the air in indignation.

Gaara was again unimpressed and asked, "So?"

Naruto sighed, "It's just…he _was_ my best friend for years before everything happened. I wasn't there for him when his parents died, but now it's his brother…all that was left of his family…"

Gaara was silent.

Naruto cleared his throat, "Anyway, uh, my friend who came over said that he was close to his breaking point and she said that I'm the only one who can get through to him anymore."

Gaara asked, "And that's it? You stayed away from your hometown for ten years because of the guy and the minute he gets in trouble you come running back?"

"Hey! First you call me a coward for leaving, and now you're calling me a pussy for considering going back? Make up your damn mind, man!"

Gaara shrugged and said, "I just want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into."

"Yeah, well, thanks but no thanks," Naruto rolled his eyes and flopped further into the chair he was in.

"But is that the only reason you are considering going back?" Gaara persisted.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Naruto exploded, "I mean no! I mean…" he collapsed a little into himself, "maybe…maybe he'll accept me like he did in the past…and…and we can be friends like we used to be…we could be like brothers again…"

Naruto sighed and looked up at Gaara, "What do you think I should do?"

Gaara shook his head, "This is a decision you must make yourself." He placed the ticket back on the coffee table and started to sit up.

"Wait!" Naruto shouted and reached out his hand. Then he retracted it and said in a quieter voice, "Wait…can you…can you stay with me tonight?"

Gaara paused a moment, then rolled his eyes. "I suppose you can use my knees as a pillow until you fall asleep."

Naruto beamed. Gaara was an insomniac, so he was expecting Gaara to remind him of the fact and say he was going out on his usual walk. "And then you'll tuck me in reeeal tight into bed?"

Gaara rolled his eyes as Naruto set a pillow against Gaara's legs.

**Coming Back**

Sakura's grin was a little too smug for Naruto's liking when she spotted him at the airport early the next morning.

She had waved to him with that self-satisfied smile of hers to which Naruto only half-heartedly returned, for many reasons.

The first being because he was _not_ happy about returning. Gaara had woken Naruto up earlier and demanded to know Naruto's answer after 'sleeping on it'.

Naruto may have lived in Suna for ten years, he still liven seventeen years of his life in Konoha and its normal sun schedule. He still lived by the rule that if the Sun was not up, then he should not be up; weird Suna Sun schedule be damned!

He couldn't eat any breakfast this morning because he was forced to awaken so early so that he could pack for a trip that he barely even wanted to go on.

He didn't want to go…he _really_ didn't want to go back to Konoha. Naruto would rather go to jail for a year for each time his mentor had been caught spying on women than go back to Konoha!

But yet he was going back…he could barely believe it, but it was the truth.

Naruto kept telling himself that he just needed to remind himself that Sasuke had called for him; had mumbled in his sleep for Naruto. He just needed to tell himself that maybe Sasuke wanted to turn over a new leaf.

Naruto was willing to forgive if Sasuke was willing to apologize.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out to him, waving at him a little too cheerily. He could imagine Sakura cheering to herself that she just _knew_ that Naruto would be coming back and was congratulating herself. She probably believed that she was the real reason that Naruto was coming back.

"Sakura…" Naruto greeted back to her, a lot _less_ cheery than Sakura.

"Aw, c'mon! Don't be like that!" Sakura smiled at him, somewhat smugly. "You're coming home!"

"Sakura." Naruto said firmly, "I'm not going back home."

The smile faded, "But—"

"I am going to visit Konoha for a few days, but it is _not_ my home. Suna is my home." Naruto was serious about making this point. He wouldn't allow Sakura to go around telling people that he was coming back 'home'.

The smile was less smug, and was obviously forced, but Naruto was in too bad of a mood to really care.

Naruto sighed, and said, "Let's get going, then."

Sakura nodded and hurried to get her bags checked.

Naruto breathed in deeply. He was going back…he was really going. After ten years, he was going back to Konoha…

He was scared.

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**I know, I started another story: I'm terrible. But I just got the incredible urge to write this…so I wrote this chapter in about a day, and usually it takes me about a week! But my inner muse is demanding, and I heed to her whim.**

**So please let me know what you think of this new story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**These febreze commercials with the 'real' people in really smelly/dirty places marveling at how great the place smells with febreze. It's practically endorsing never cleaning again for the lazy teenager or other dirty people. Next, there will be deodorant commercials bragging about how people won't have to shower for days either. It'll be a conspiracy.**

**Onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Naruto barely spoke while he was on the plane with Sakura…or when the plane landed and they were in the airport.

The only times he really talked to Sakura was to either ask questions about when they planned to land or where they would need to go to pick up their luggage.

Likewise, Sakura mainly answered the questions asked to her. She tried to start up some conversations, and bring up memories of the good ol' days since she was still babbling about Naruto coming back 'home'. But Naruto refused to refer to Konoha as 'home'; much like how he refused to speak other than to ask his questions.

Sakura caught on, though too slow in Naruto's opinion. So after about four failed attempts to start conversations, she gave up.

Naruto might have appeared rude to the other passengers on the plane, as voiced by the two women behind himself and Sakura. But he didn't care.

He was more interested in keeping himself from going to the pilot and demanding that they turn the plane around. Or at least, keep himself from snapping at everybody.

All during the trip to Konoha, Naruto was at war with himself.

He didn't want to go back…but he was told that he was needed…but the person who needed him was SASUKE! Sasuke didn't deserve his help…but they _were_ best friends…keyword being 'WERE'!

But everyone deserved a second chance! But Sasuke had been given more than enough chances over the years! But that shouldn't matter between friends…but Sasuke didn't consider them friends anymore!

That shouldn't matter; Naruto still considered Sasuke a friend…but hadn't Naruto been trying his very best to block out those years when they were friends over the past ten years?

Sakura said that Sasuke was calling for them! But what did that even mean?

She was probably sleeping with Sasuke to know that…that slut…_NARUTO _used to be the only one allowed to sleep over at Sasuke's…and Sasuke was sleeping with Sakura for her to have the opportunity to overhear his mumblings…that man-whore…

He'd probably sleep with anything nowadays…that was mean of Naruto to think that…but it was probably true!

So if Sakura and Sasuke were whoring with each other, then why was Naruto even going back to Konoha?!

Sasuke didn't need Naruto when he had _Sakura_…but she never did know how to handle Sasuke, even when he was in a good mood…the hell with it, if she was sleeping with Sasuke then she'd have to learn how to handle him eventually!

But she shouldn't have to learn when Sasuke was near his breaking point…but Naruto didn't want to have to be the one who'd have to show Sakura how to handle Sasuke! Naruto didn't even want to go back at all!

Naruto was so caught up in his sporadic thoughts that he barely noticed that the plane had landed.

He walked through the airport in a daze; clutching his bag so tight that if he were paying attention he'd notice his knuckles were aching with the stress he was putting on them.

All the while, his stomach kept squirming…or whatever those damn butterflies do when they are terrified. He _hated_ being back in Konoha!

Naruto kept imagining people jumping out at him to ask him what the hell he was doing back there and beat him up and put his mangled body on the place where they check bags in and send him through the conveyor belt thingy of doom that the toys from _Toy Story Two_ got lost on and toss him on the plane with the baggage and leave him on the plane until he died or something…

Sakura had wordlessly led the way from the gates to retrieve their bags while Naruto continued to imagine different scenarios for these airport-ninja to find him and kill him.

His pink-haired friend might have realized that Naruto was not in a talkative mood, but she did not, however, realize the reason behind it because before long she was asking Naruto about places he might want to visit now that he was 'back home'.

Naruto realized that she wouldn't let this question drop like she had while on the plane and simply suggested that they find a Starbucks. A Starbucks would be safe…Naruto had never really visited them until he became an author and couldn't deal with the cabin fever; so he never frequented any of the coffee chain stores as a teenager. No 'precious memories' there, and only a slight chance of recognizing or being recognized since they were practically at every block.

Sakura shrugged and pulled out her phone to text someone or look on the internet or play with an app or something on her new looking phone. Naruto never owned a cell phone with a touch screen and never wanted to own one. He never saw the point in it and saw the extra accessories and whatnot as money wasting baggage. He much preferred his old chunky phone that he had bought for himself with his first paycheck as a published author, thanks. It wasn't fancy, but it could call and text; and it was enough.

He kept himself from commenting about how he had found that people talk less to the people they are actually with whenever they had their fancy phones out because Naruto realized that if Sakura was paying attention to her phone, then she wouldn't try to start another conversation about the good ol' days…which Naruto definitely was not interested in in the slightest.

He just hoped that she would put her phone away while she drove…

After the two retrieved their luggage, Sakura led them to the parking garage to her car; a silver Volvo.

Naruto couldn't help himself from raising an eyebrow and commenting, "Nice car," while holding back a snicker.

Sakura's cheeks reddened as she quickened her pace while she defended, "I was really into _Twilight_, okay? Can we let it go now?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto said airily, "I'm a bit scared that we'd attract other Vampires."

Sakura didn't reply, though her blush reigned supreme over her pale complexion.

"Or WORSE! . . . _Twilight_ maniacs!" Naruto feigned horror.

"Oh please, that ridiculous fad is over," Sakura said haughtily, obviously trying to retain her dignity as the two placed their luggage into the trunk of her car.

"Yet here is proof that the 'ridiculous fad' has left its mark and there are still 'Twihards' out there," Naruto pointed out as he waited for Sakura to unlock the doors for him.

Sakura stuck out her tongue at him and pressed the button on her keys to let them both into the car.

Naruto chuckled a little and smiled to himself…that was, until they left the parking garage and drove past a sign saying, '_Welcome to Konoha!_'

Oh, how Naruto loathed that sign.

Now that he was forcibly reminded as to exactly _where_ they were—exactly the same place Naruto did _not_ want to be—his mood had instantly soured. And instead of airport ninja after him, Naruto had become paranoid of all the Konoha citizens; he was convinced that they all knew that he was in town. Like some sort of city-wide alert earlier that day or as soon as the plane landed…

Unfortunately, the friendly banter he and Sakura had about her car had given Sakura the false idea that Naruto had gotten over his silent funk during the plane trip and the airport. So she was chattering away about things and places that had changed since he left that, apparently, Naruto just _needed_ to be made aware of because he was 'back home'.

Naruto simply tuned her out and tried his best to avoid the gazes he was CONVINCED that were aimed at the car straight at him.

As they drove, Naruto noticed that they were approaching a Starbucks. So, while staying inconspicuous in case other cars were still staring, Naruto began looking for parking spaces.

"Hey," Naruto called as he pointed in front of them, "there's a parking spot just a block away from the Starbucks."

But Sakura drove past it.

"Uhhhh…Sakura?" Naruto asked, turning to her.''

"Hm?" Sakura asked in return, not taking her eyes off the road.

"You drove right past the parking spot I pointed out for you _and_ the Starbucks."

"Oh, that? That's not the Starbucks we're going to."

Naruto glared at her, "Sakuraaaa," he said in a testy tone, "you're not trying to pull anything on me, right?"

"No!" Sakura denied a little too quickly for Naruto's tastes.

"I'm warning you right now: NO funny business!" Naruto stated in his demanding tone, "I'm NOT here to come back 'home'. I'm NOT here to reminisce on the good ol' days! I'm NOT here for ANY reason besides Sasuke apparently needing me…and if it turns out that I was right and he refuses my help, then I'm outa here on the first plane back to MY home." Naruto finished with a huff and crossed his arms as he stared out of the window.

Sakura was silent, which didn't seem like a good sign.

Naruto heaved a tired sigh and grumbled, "Let's just get the damn coffee and let's get this over with. I need to send in story ideas to my publisher by the end of the weekend."

"You shouldn't say that, Namikaze," Sakura said in what Naruto supposed was supposed to be a threat.

"Uzumaki," Naruto reminded her stiffly.

Sakura was again silent.

The rest of the car ride was silent, in one of the most awkward of senses. Well, at least on Sakura's end it must have been awkward.

On Naruto's side—since he was the one initiating the strict no-talking rule—the silence was welcomed. He felt a little bad for the pink-haired driver, he kinda sorta really did, but not enough to lax the newly enforced rule.

He figured that while he _was_ in Konoha…he would NOT indulge anyone in a happy delusion of him 'coming home'. He was _only_ VISITING! Naruto had every intention of leaving before Sunday night; maybe Saturday if he was lucky.

They passed by another Starbucks; they were frickin' everywhere nowadays, more than in Naruto's vague memories he had tried to block out for the past ten years.

Naruto sighed heavily, visibly frustrated. They had passed by _two_ Starbucks that were conveniently close to the airport, and the past one even had its own parking lot! That meant that Sakura was taking Naruto to a SPECIFIC Starbucks, and that couldn't mean anything good in Naruto's eyes.

Sakura sent Naruto a look that he only saw in his peripheral vision, but he didn't care.

He was glad that she knew how irritated he was being back in Konoha. Maybe it would _finally_ get the message across that Naruto did not want to be or stay in Konoha!

Naruto frowned. If Sakura was driving to a specific Starbucks, then that would probably mean that there was something significant about their destination. Naruto held back a groan; the significance of the destination would probably equate to people.

That brought in an entirely different problem on its own in Sakura was planning on bringing other people into this.

It was not as if Naruto hated his old friends from Konoha, in fact, he had some pretty fond memories of them. It was just that he had worked truly, very hard to move past his life in Konoha and focus on his life at home, in Suna. Old friends would complicate that.

Plus, he was pretty damn sure that those people had little to no idea as to why he left. And along that note, he was also pretty damn sure that they barely cared. Or at least cared enough to search for him. Those dicks. What kind of 'friends' don't even look for their seventeen year old _orphan_ friend after they disappear.

Naruto never let himself dwell upon those thoughts during his ten years away…it was almost as painful to think about as when he would not let himself think about what Sasuke did before telling him to leave.

But all of his careful avoidance of the subject would just fly out of the window if Sakura forced him to see those people who didn't bother to look for him after he left…he was having enough trouble as it was just being around Sakura herself.

Naruto shook his head. Dammit. Just being in Konoha made him depressive. _THIS_ was part of the reason he had so adamantly refused to come with Sakura.

He was tempted to open the door and jump out of the car so he could go back to the airport and go back home. That idea sounded_ WAY_ more appealing than staying in this damned place.

Before Naruto could calculate whether he wanted to jump out of the car or roll out of the car, the car in question slowed down.

Naruto looked up to see why—if it was for a stoplight then he'd just have to _walk_ out of the car—and saw that they were pulling into an exit lane for a Starbucks.

Dammit. Naruto missed his chance.

Maybe, when Sakura wasn't looking, he could steal her keys and simply drive back to the airport…or use his beloved chunky cell phone to call a cab.

Sakura parked the car and asked, "Ready to go in?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "So ready I should change my name to 'Freddy'."

"Good!" Sakura smiled as she exited her car. She obviously missed the sarcasm.

Naruto sighed and exited the car himself. Unlike Sakura, he didn't need to reach back in and grab a purse. Not that he was complaining; it wasted time and he got a premium view of Sakura bent over. He may not have swung that way—and there may not have been much to look at—but that never stopped him before.

As the two entered the coffee chain shop, Naruto did a quick sweep of the place. He nearly sagged in relief; he didn't recognize anyone! He was surrounded by strangers. _Konoha_ strangers…but no one who would question his being there…he hoped. There was always a chance that Sasuke Uchiha had hired secret assassins to make sure Naruto never returned, or that Konoha DID have a 'Naruto Warning' beacon of some kind and they were all waiting for Naruto to put his guard down so they could go in for the kill…

The Starbucks Sakura had chosen was not too crowded, so before long it was Sakura's turn to order.

Naruto observed the other in how she interacted with the barista, and noticed that she did not seem to know the girl personally. Or at least, there was no conversation shared between the two ladies, or even any small talk. Sakura just gave her order and presented a credit card.

When it was Naruto's turn to order, he behaved in a similar manner and ordered Iced Coffee; his usual order. Normally, Naruto would talk with the barista at home, whichever Starbucks he chose to go to that day as he would be in no hurry. He would also order two Iced Coffees—one for himself, and the other for the barista he was talking to—because it really did get hot in Suna.

But this was not 'normal'…this was in _Konoha_, so Naruto really wasn't in the mood to interact with _anyone_ from this blasted city.

He waited patiently for his order to get ready, and saw that Sakura was playing on her phone or whatever. Naruto rolled his eyes.

Here he was: someone that the woman had not seen for over TEN YEARS, and yet she was glued to her phone.

She was even glued to her phone when their orders were called, so with a sigh, Naruto accepted both orders and found them a table.

After Naruto set the coffees down on his corner table, he looked behind him to see that there was no Sakura. It took a lot of effort to not groan in that moment.

So he went to the front of the coffee shop to retrieve the woman.

When he got there, he saw that she was alternately looking from her phone to the door.

"Damn, Sakura," Naruto said in a halfway joking, halfway annoyed manner, "You force me all the way here, and you already want to leave me? That's harsh."

"What? Oh, no! I'm not trying to leave, I'm just waiting for my coffee!" Sakura smiled while averting her eyes.

Naruto rolled his own blue eyes, "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, her tone full of somewhat forced confusion.

"You're lying to me," Naruto deadpanned.

"No, I'm not!" Sakura sounded indignant.

"Yeah, sure. One," Naruto held up a finger, "I can still tell when you are lying to me, get that through your head. And two," Naruto held up his second finger and placed them on her lips as she was about to interrupt him, "our orders have already been called. They are back at the table I got us while you were 'waiting'." He had removed his fingers from silencing her lips to use air quotes. Now he had lip stuff on his fingers. Gross.

Sakura blushed, "Oh…yes…of course…" obviously embarrassed by being lawyered like that.

Naruto rolled his eyes again, "So what's going on?"

"Nothing!" Sakura insisted, this time making sure to keep eye contact with him. Unfortunately, her eyebrows were scrunched up a little and her voice was too loud for her to be telling the truth.

Naruto sighed. Being in Konoha itself was a stressful issue, and he was in no mood to have to deal with this bullshit.

"Whatever, let's just drink our coffee so that I can just get out of here sooner," Naruto announced as he turned around.

"You don't mean that!" said Sakura.

Naruto turned back around, "Yeah, I really do."

Sakura bit her lip, and before Naruto could say anything else she suggested, "Why don't you go ahead and drink your coffee? I need to powder my nose."

Naruto squinted his eyes and cocked his head to the side, "Powder your nose? What the hell does that even mean? You're not nearly as pimply as you were in middle school."

"It's an expression, idiot!" Sakura shouted as she approached him.

"Public! We're in public!" Naruto frantically reminded her as he backed away from her with his arms raised in surrender.

Then Sakura realized that they were, indeed, in public. She stopped stomping over to Naruto and instead daintily waved at the few people brave enough to stare at her.

Then she glared—in a very lady-like manner—at Naruto and said, "Powdering my nose means that I'm going to the ladies room."

The confusion returned, "Then why didn't you say so?"

Naruto could swear that he heard Sakura growl, like legit growl in anger, so he raised his arms in surrender again and fled to the safety of the corner table.

When he sat, he decided to face the wall, since he had no real desire to face the people he had avoided for ten years, even if they were just strangers.

While he drank his iced coffee, Naruto decided that he might as well do some mental work, or at least decide his schedule. He didn't have any pens and paper—they were left in his luggage in the trunk of the car—so he would just have to remember the stuff in his head; which was cool, because all he really needed to do before Sunday was choose which stories he would present to the publishers.

So he knew that he would have to see the bastard—AKA Sasuke Uchiha—soon, probably later today. So that left all of the weekend free if things went well. He hoped that they went well and that all he'd have to do was show Sakura that the bastard was _not_ near his snapping point and he could go home in just a couple of hours.

Of course, things wouldn't work out that dandy…what would probably happen would be Sasuke being royally pissed that Naruto defied him and came back and then he would beat Naruto again and do worse than what he did to get Naruto to leave in the first plac—

Naruto shook his head and slapped his cheeks.

No. He shouldn't be thinking about that. That was one of the reasons why Naruto had avoided even thinking about the damned city for the past ten years, even though it was kinda a near constant reminder…

Damn, just being in Konoha was terrible for his mental health, or whatever psychology crap Gaara's siblings tried to feed him every so often whenever Naruto refused to tell them his back story. They were quite adamant about learning about Naruto's past when he and Gaara first became friends, more out of curiosity than anything since Naruto had refused.

His past was in the past and his life in Konoha did not belong in his life in Suna; Naruto refused to mix the two.

Before Naruto could get himself to do any more mental work, he was interrupted.

"MM! The smell of coffee is most delicious! Do you not agree, my good friends?"

Naruto's eyes widened.

No.

It can't be.

PLEASE let Naruto have been knocked out by Sakura and in a near-death hallucination or something be _severely_ wrong with his head!

Just don't let this be true!

"You say this every time we enter a coffee shop."

Naruto tried to lean down in his chair. If he was closer to the ground, then no one would see him, and therefore he would be safe.

"Hey, you can't really blame him, can you? I mean, we barely let him have coffee as it is. This is the first time in weeks he's been allowed in a Starbucks, and even now he's going to order a hot chocolate. _Isn't that right_?"

"Yes! That is very much true! And while I would enjoy a coffee, I would enjoy a hot chocolate or water even more when it is time spent with friends."

Naruto—VERY QUIETLY—moved his chair so that it would be closer to the table. Maybe the combination of the chair being closer to the table and him practically melded into the chair will make people think that he isn't there.

He should grab his iced coffee from the table…but if he didn't then people might assume the table is open! Naruto didn't know what to do!

So he simply prayed that the three peoples' voices he heard were merely auditory hallucinations and that he was just going crazy.

That would make his life _much_ simpler.

"Ah! Sakura! How very nice it is to see you! You are looking as youthful as ever!"

Shit.

"Hey, Lee. And hi, Neji, TenTen!" said Sakura's voice.

SHIT.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto heard TenTen say, "you said that Naruto was with you in this shop. You weren't lying, were you?" Her voice was playful, but there was curiosity in it.

Naruto turned slightly so that he was still hidden behind the chair, but he could see the entrance area. And sure enough, there were four people by there: Lee, Neji, TenTen, and Sakura.

Karma was such a bitch. She so owed him, because Naruto did _not_ deserve this!

"He's here! I swear!" Sakura promised.

"He has not returned to Konoha in the past ten years, so why would he choose to return now?" Neji asked in a somewhat cynical tone.

Maybe Naruto could crawl towards the exit…but the exit was also the entrance! Maybe crawl to the bathrooms? But the bathrooms were close to the exit/entrance and Lee and Neji could easily enter the men's bathroom so that wouldn't help…

"He's here for Sasuke. And he's right back there!" Naruto saw Sakura point towards his table in the back.

He immediately hid back behind the chair.

"NARUTO!" Lee shouted.

'_Please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me!_' Naruto frantically thought as he squeezed his eyes shut. If he couldn't see them, they couldn't see him.

All of a sudden, Naruto felt himself being lifted out of his chair and swung around in what felt like an attempt to squeeze the lift out of him.

It was working.

"OH, NARUTO! I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW GOOD IT IS TO SEE YOU!" Lee shouted as he continued to swing Naruto around. Anymore then Naruto might really have to go to the bathroom to throw up…then maybe escape if he was lucky, he was pretty sure he remembered how to break into a car and hotwire it from Gaara…

"Lee, you're kinda choking him," TenTen's voice sounded from somewhere.

Almost immediately Naruto was placed down on the ground, and he had to search blindly for something to lean on while he got himself together.

It wasn't until his lungs were working right did Naruto realize that he had been using Neji.

Naruto backed away immediately and wound up in Lee's arms again; this time he was backwards.

"So it really is you, Naruto," Neji said, looking at Naruto with his pale eyes.

"Uh," was all Naruto could respond before he was interrupted.

"YES, IT REALLY IS YOU, NARUTO!" Lee shouted while he once more squeezed Naruto.

"We've missed you," TenTen commented, seemingly oblivious to Naruto's current breathing problem.

"And I miss breathing!" Naruto replied as he struggled to escape.

"Oops!" Lee exclaimed as he let go of the blonde.

As soon as he was free, Naruto took exaggerated breaths of air.

"Let's sit down so we can catch up properly," Sakura suggested as she placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto glared at her. That bitch; she had planned this all along.

Sakura didn't even have the decency to look ashamed. Instead, she looked quite smug. As if she had accomplished something great by forcing Naruto to come to a city he did not want to go to, and then forcing him to interact with people he did not want to see.

It was not as if he hated them per say, he just did not have the fondest feelings for those who did not even bother to contact him after he left. Lee wasn't so hot either, as apparently he was a gossip…fucking Lee…

Naruto sighed and as soon as he sat down in his chair, he stared obstinately at his iced coffee, wishing there was more so that he could avoid talking longer.

"Soooooo…what have you been up to these days, Naruto?" TenTen asked.

He pitied the girl. It was obvious that his silence was making people feel a little awkward and she was grasping for small talk. Good.

"Our Naruto is an author now!" Lee exclaimed, patting—slamming his hand on—Naruto's back. The blonde was happy that he hadn't taken a sip of his beverage since it would have been on the table now.

Naruto nodded and said, "Yep, published and everything."

"Yes!" Lee said immediately afterwards, "Under the name 'Naruto Uzumaki'!"

"What's that? A pen name?" TenTen asked.

Naruto shook his head, "No. It's my real name. I changed it since Naruto Namikaze doesn't exist anymore."

There was a tense silence, and then Lee said, "Naruto has written four books! He completes one about every two years!"

"That is rather impressive," Neji commented after a pause.

"Yea, it is!" TenTen exclaimed, "I forgot you used to write those short stories!"

Sakura laughed, "How could you forget? During classes and detention, all he would do was write in his notebooks!"

"And how could _you_ forget that we weren't in the same grade?" TenTen shot back, but not with any malice.

"Well we weren't exactly _close_—" Sakura retorted.

"Well, that was then, and this is now," Naruto cut in. He did not want to spend his time focusing on the past. Despite what Sakura said, there would be no 'catching up'.

TenTen cleared her throat, "Well…uh…so where do you live?"

"He lives in Suna!" Lee supplied, rather happy to know this knowledge, apparently.

Neji rolled his eyes, "I believe TenTen was talking to _Naruto_."

"Oh, yes! Of course!" said Lee, flustered.

Naruto himself shrugged, "Like Lee said: I live in Suna now."

"And it really _is_ as hot as they say!" Sakura joked, obviously attempting to make conversation go faster, but it seemed as if there was an ulterior motive of sorts.

"Is it really?" TenTen asked, jumping onto the small talk, "But it's not even summer yet! Summer in Suna must be terrible!"

"Oh, it was! Well, yesterday wasn't the summer, of course. But it was _so_ hot! I even had to take off my jack—" Sakura babbled on with a smile.

"You get used to it," said Naruto, almost uninterestedly. The smile left Sakura's face as she sent him a quick glare for interrupting her, but he wasn't in the mood for conversation.

Silence reigned supreme at the table, with awkward as its queen.

Feeling bad for squashing the feeble attempt at conversation, Naruto asked, "So whatsup in Konoha life these days? Still babysitting Lee?"

TenTen laughed and said, "Yes! And don't even get me started on parties! Some people think it's _funny_ to spike this guy's drinks!"

Naruto allowed himself to give a smile and asked, "OhoHO, still a lightweight I see."

"That may be true, but I am the champion of my weight class and have even won against those of higher weights than I!" Lee defended, raising a fist in the air in victory.

"He meant in your drinking ability, _not_ your fighting ability," Neji looked like he dearly wanted to slap his face with the palm of his hand.

"Oh, yes. Of course," said Lee, embarrassed.

TenTen laughed at Lee's blush, "He's gotten better!"

"Suuuuuure," said Naruto as he took a sip of his iced coffee.

"It's true! He can drink three fourths of a beer before getting wasted," TenTen sounded proud.

"And when he drinks an entire bottle?" Naruto challenged, unwittingly remembering the one time he had seen Lee shit-face drunk after taking _one_ sip of beer.

"Oh, he can't do _tha_—" Sakura tried to cut into the conversation, but was cut off.

Neji sighed and answered, "Then it is up us to remove him from the premises."

Naruto nodded. That sounded about right.

"Soooooo, you said you're an author now?" asked TenTen.

Naruto nodded again. He thought that they had already established this.

"So what kind of things do you write about?" TenTen asked him.

Before Naruto could answer, Lee interrupted him, "Naruto writes a combination of romance and fantasy!"

"She was asking Naruto again, Lee," Neji scolded Lee.

"Oh, yes, of course," Lee laughed, apparently used to this kind of scolding.

TenTen laughed as well, and turned to Naruto. Apparently she wanted Naruto to repeat what Lee had just told her.

"Uh, yeah, it's either romance, fantasy, or a combination thereof," he told the table. Lee nodded along as he already knew this, Neji was impassive, but that's just how he was, and the ladies looked somewhat impressed, though TenTen more than Sakura.

"So what's it like to be an author?" TenTen pressed on.

Naruto was about to answer, but this time Sakura interrupted him, "He stays home all day and listens to music while procrastinating."

Naruto frowned; he didn't do that. Okay, sometimes he would procrastinate, but that was always done outside the apartment. Whenever he stayed home for the day, that mean that he was on personal—or roommate enforced—lockdown and he almost always got serious work done since he put himself on lockdown when his muse was singing and he was inspired.

"Do you really?" TenTen asked, amused. Apparently she had already accepted this as truth and simply wanted Naruto to confirm it, and by the looks of it, Neji agreed with her and Sakura.

Naruto's frown deepened as he shook his head, "No, I'm serious about my job. It may be more flexible than others in dress code and location, but I still have deadlines and I've never missed one." Which was true. He may have gotten dangerously close a few times, but his assistant and Gaara have always kept him on track.

"Really?" TenTen asked with her brown eyes wide. She seemed genuinely interested in what Naruto had told her, while Sakura had a tiny frown on her expression.

Naruto nodded as he addressed Sakura, "You interrupted me yesterday while I was working on ideas, which takes an entirely different process than writing the actual chapters. And if you remember, I told you that I was working."

Sakura looked a little miffed, but Naruto couldn't spare her much attention as TenTen was asking yet another question, "You were working on ideas?"

"Well, yeah. I finished with a book not too long ago, so I'm preparing a few ideas for my publisher so that they know my down period isn't totally wasted," Naruto explained to her.

"Wow, that's so cool!" TenTen exclaimed.

"Uh, sure," Naruto shrugged it off, "So what do you guys do for a living?"

Lee answered, "I own and teach at my own dojo!"

Naruto smiled, that seemed like a dream job for Lee and he was proud of his gossipy friend.

"I work at the family shop in my spare time," TenTen offered.

"Excuse me, what?" Naruto asked, not sure what she was talking about.

"My dad is a metalsmith, remember?" TenTen asked, and before Naruto could answer in the negative, she continued, "Well, my _official_ job is head of sales, so I regulate orders and all the paperwork. But sometimes, like on weekends or near a deadline, Dad will let me help in the shop!"

Naruto was impressed, "Sooooo, what kind of stuff do you make?"

"Oh, me? Nothing big. I'm allowed to help with the regular everyday orders, but can't do the custom orders by myself yet. Dad still thinks that only _he_ can handle the intricates, but I'm slowly but surely showing him what I can do." TenTen finished with a smile.

Naruto smiled in reply, then turned to the more stoic one of the table and asked, "So what are you up to these days, Neji?"

"Oh, he works with Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed with a smile.

Mood: instantly soured.

Damn, why did Sakura have to mention the bastard? Things were going well, and Naruto wasn't even _thinking_ about how much he hated Sasuke, and by extension, Konoha and its citizens.

To Naruto's surprise, Neji was also glaring at Sakura. "No, I do _not_ 'work with Sasuke'," he said with clear disdain, "I am the president of Hyuuga Inc. who just so happens to _occasionally_ work WITH Uchiha Corp."

Sakura shrunk away from the glare a little.

Naruto was confused. Sakura seemed just _so_ excited to force him into a situation he clearly didn't want to be a part of. And now that he was actually participating in it, she seemed miffed about it.

Whatever, women were confusing. It would be better for his sanity if he did not try to work out the inner workings of a woman's mind.

Then he felt a pull on his sleeve and saw TenTen pulling him closer so that she could whisper in his ear.

"Don't be confused," oh, so his confusion had been obvious, "she gets like this a lot nowadays whenever Sasuke isn't with her. It's like she just _has_ to be the center of attention. Don't let it get you down, we just either ignore it or go with the flow."

Naruto nodded, that made sense.

"What were you guys whispering about?" Sakura asked, avoiding Neji's eye, even though he was not paying attention to her.

"Oh, nothing," TenTen breezily as Naruto nodded with her. Had Sakura been a man, or even TenTen as she was more brash and open, Naruto would have told her what they said, but Naruto was smart enough to never let a woman know that they were just commented about in a somewhat negative way.

Gaara learned that the hard way when he had asked Naruto if his assistant was always giddy like she was around Gaara. His assistant had asked what they were talking about, and Gaara had repeated the question out loud, thus making Naruto's assistant break out into tears and make her near inconsolable while she refused to leave the bathroom…except to yell at anyone around her when Gaara had decided that it was not worth it and left…Naruto remembered that well and had learned his lesson.

Sakura looked at them suspiciously, then stood up. "C'mon, Naruto, we should go see Sasuke now."

Shit.

Naruto's stomach instantly started to squirm, or attack against the butterflies—more like pterodactyls—flying around and attacking his stomach walls or whatever they do when they want to let Naruto know that he did not want to do something; like see Sasuke.

"What? But we have only just gotten here!" Lee complained.

"I know right, it's been ten years since we've seen Naruto! Can't we get ten more minutes?" asked TenTen.

Neji was more rational, though, "I'm sure that seeing Sasuke is _exactly_ the reason that Naruto has chosen to return to Konoha after all this time. After all, Sasuke hasn't exactly handled the death of Itachi all that well."

Naruto wanted to correct Neji and tell him that he didn't 'choose' to return but he was _forced_ to return, but Sakura said, "Exactly! So come along now, Naruto."

"What am I, a dog?" Naruto grumbled as he got up from his chair.

"Nope, that's Kiba," TenTen laughed as she too stood up. She then grabbed Neji's arm so he could stand up like Lee was in the process of doing.

"Uh…are we all leaving?" Naruto asked. He wasn't sure if he liked that idea or not, since having Neji, TenTen, and Lee coming along to wherever Sasuke was _would_ help resolve his nerve—or at least keep him from jumping out of the car—but he absolutely did not want anyone there while he was with the bastard, or else they might figure out what the real reason was for Naruto leaving in the first place.

TenTen shook her head and commented, "We have been here for a while, but he haven't ordered anything yet."

Then Lee said, "And we wish to say goodbye, at least for now, that is."

"Uh, I guess you guys should say your goodbyes not 'cause after I kick some sense into Sasuke, I'm going back home," Naruto told them.

TenTen seemed confused, "What, your old apartment? You're gunna buy it back and will be busy with that so you won't be able to hang out for a while?"

Naruto shook his head and said, "No, as in go back HOME…to Suna."

The three were silent for a moment, and so was Sakura. Naruto was a little worried that they would deny what he had just said, much like Sakura did both times he had told her this before.

But then Neji said, "That is understandable. You have built a life for yourself elsewhere, and probably did not intend to have to be an emergency babysitter for Uchiha."

Naruto really loved Neji right then. Hell, he was ready to prop himself on one knee and ask the man to be his forever.

TenTen looked downcast, and Lee was downright tearful.

"Oh, my good friend, Naruto! It saddens me to think that we may never see each other again!" Lee cried out as he pulled Naruto into a squeezing hug.

Naruto wanted to point out that _they_ could go see _him_ in Suna, but he was more worried about breathing at that moment.

"Don't be a stranger, 'kay? Make sure that you keep in touch," TenTen demanded as she too joined in the hug.

Why did the responsibility have to fall onto NARUTO again? Were THEY incapable of looking up a phone number, or even asking _Lee_ for his number and/or address since apparently he knew both well enough to tell Sakura?

He heard Neji sigh and strained his neck to see why, then saw that Neji was currently the victim of a double glare courtesy of Lee and TenTen.

"You have been and will be missed," said Neji as he placed a hand on the back of Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto felt a swoop of affection towards Neji when he said that…then a physical swoop as he felt himself being shoved against Neji while Lee loudly demanded for a—youthful—group hug.

Sakura cleared her voice, and Naruto was set free. He turned around to see her hand raised next to Lee's shoulder, indicating that she probably poked—jabbed—it to get his attention.

"Well, as fun as this was, we have to leave now," Sakura announced as she grabbed hold of Naruto's arm and pulled—_dragged_—him out of the Starbucks.

Naruto waved his farewell, not entirely sure if he was happy to leave them or not, but still very much positive that he did _not_ want to see Sasuke Uchiha.

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**My roommates and I were tired one day, and many times when I am very tired I mess up my words. So I told them that 'I Yuv You', and we had a laugh at my expense, but then it turned into our word to describe our roommate love. Of course, it has been hilariously misused, like one roommate insulting another and when called out on it, saying "But I Yuv you!" and thus rendering the argument null. But mostly it's just a reminder of our roommate love whenever we affectionately—and forcefully—hug each other to add in a quick "I yuv you!" I am also adamant that it remain OUR word and have forbidden the use to other people and **_**from**_** other people. I am so serious about it, I refuse to use it for my former roommate, who is my perfection! *pose*!**

**Anyway, thank you to those who favorite and review! I WUV WOO!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**Here it is! The part that some people are waiting for! The part where Naruto and Sasuke meet again after ten years! ****Insert OOOOOOOOO!**** So have fun reading!**

**Onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Naruto's stomach was squirming as he and Sakura drove to wherever Sasuke was. He was very happy that he did not have breakfast and did not order a Starbucks cookie, since he probably would have thrown it up by now…

He didn't want to ask where they were going…because knowing far long or short of a travel distance they had would drive Naruto insane! It was like knowing that he was going to get shot, and knowing exactly where the bullet would hit him would just make him hyper-aware of that area and make it hurt all the worse when it finally happened.

It may have been a strange thing to compare seeing Sasuke to, and Naruto would not repeat it to Sakura, but in his mind, seeing Sasuke was almost just as bad as getting shot…

…At least getting shot would be quick, to the point, and would get him out of the situation pretty quickly. Sure, there would be residual wounds and pains, but so would seeing Sasuke so he'd take the bullet!

As the two took a turn in Sakura's silver Volvo, Naruto's eyes widened in dread.

He recognized the street they were on.

How could be forget? It was the street that led to the high school, and that led to the lake, and the street that would eventually lead to Uchiha Manor. None of which, Naruto was interested in visiting.

The high school had too many memories—both happy-ish and depressing—for Naruto to bear going near. The lake also had many memories—mostly happy as it was his and Sasuke's favorite place to be as children—so that was out of the question or else he'd be tempted to wallow in the past. Uchiha Manor was a place that Naruto didn't want to ever go to again for the simple reason of it was Sasuke's house.

Now that Naruto thought about it, though, there was a chance that he would not be visiting any of the locations on this street!

Sasuke hated the high school when he was there…or more specifically hated the student body as they were all 'too stupid to be allowed to exist'…and that was just the people in his classes! The bastard had a plethora of complaints—some very creative as time went by—about everyone else in the school except for a select few that Naruto used to think he was a part of.

There was a small chance that whatever Sakura intended for Naruto and Sasuke to 'talk' about—get into a fight about if Naruto was being realistic—would be at the lake, but he doubted that. For them, the lake was sacred; he and the bastard had an unsaid rule that they were not allowed to fight near the lake. The bastard might have changed—_drastically_—over the years, but Naruto was positive that THAT rule had stayed true.

And best of all, Sasuke might not be living at Uchiha Manor! He had always said whenever Naruto would hang out with him at Uchiha Manor that he wanted to leave the place. Sasuke had also mentioned that he preferred Naruto's apartment for the privacy it offered…even though Naruto knew that Sasuke was _only_ talking about the privacy as the bastard would constantly complain about the state of the apartment, the 'bad' neighborhood it was in, the neighbors, and even how it was too small. But those complaints were less frequent than the comments that Sasuke wanted his own place like Naruto.

His mood slightly lifted by the thoughts that told him that he would not have to go to the high school, lake, or Uchiha Manor, Naruto asked, "So where are we going?"

"Uchiha Manor," Sakura answered immediately.

Shit.

Naruto instantly felt nauseous.

Not noticing Naruto's current stress induced stomach problems, Sakura said, "Oh, before I forget, there are a few things that you might want to know about Sasuke you left."

'_No, I don't_,' Naruto thought darkly as he tried to regulate his stomach out of its nausea. He had _no_ intention of learning about the bastard's life after he practically banished Naruto from his hometown. Naruto didn't care if the bastard was oh-so-successful. He didn't want to know what the bastard did for a living. He didn't want to hear about the bastard's relationship status! The only thing Naruto _wanted_ to hear was that the bastard hated Sakura for bringing Naruto to Konoha and that Naruto was free to go back home.

"Okay, so here's what you missed." Sakura said, in her old valley-girl gossip tone that made Naruto role his eyes, "Well, of _course_ Sasuke graduated valedictorian."

'_Oh, of COURSE_,' Naruto thought sarcastically as he glared out the window.

"And after that, he majored in business at Sound University…and he got in early admittance!" Sakura gushed about Sasuke as if she was just SO proud of the bastard's accomplishments.

That tidbit of information threw Naruto off a little. During their junior year of high school, when Sasuke had gotten his first letter from Sound University, when Naruto had asked Sasuke about it, Sasuke had told him that he'd rather go to community college than go to Sound. But then again, back then, Sasuke had promised to tutor Naruto so they could both go to Konoha University and be roommates, so obviously things have changed.

"And he even graduated early, what with all the AP credits he got in high school. But anyway," Sakura continued with a proud smile as well as a slight blush on her cheeks, reminding Naruto of when they were in middle school and Sakura would constantly gushed over absolutely anything and everything Sasuke did in her mad crush over him, especially with her long hair again, "after he graduated, he started working at Uchiha Corp!"

'_Duh_,' Naruto thought to himself. He could already infer that both from what had been said at the coffee shop and from how Sasuke's father, Fugaku Uchiha, would constantly tell Sasuke that he must have perfect grades since he was going to be working at Uchiha Corp after he graduated from university. Naruto didn't know WHY Sakura was telling him these obvious things that he _obviously_ didn't want to know.

"I'm not exactly sure where he started, but I know it was pretty high up. But I _do_ know that his position rose when his parents died and Itachi became the president and CEO or whatever." Sakura continued talking in her gossipy tone, not even speaking in a somber tone when she described the death of Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha.

Naruto wanted to throw her a glare for that, but figured that he had no ground to stand on as when he heard about it he stayed at home instead of coming to Konoha for Sasuke…Naruto just figured that he would be the last person that Sasuke wanted to see then…

"And, uh, speaking about Itachi…" Sakura said with what seemed like trepidation, which seemed silly, since Naruto never had any problem with the eldest Uchiha brother…only fear since Itachi could be intimidating as hell even when he was trying to convince Naruto that he had nothing to fear of Itachi since that was clearly a lie so that Naruto would put his guard down and Itachi could steal his soul.

"…after Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha died, he had a baby with his lover," Sakura continued.

"What? Lover?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself. Itachi always seemed like a loner throughout the years that Naruto had known him, and even though women threw themselves at him, Itachi seemed, somehow, above them and above petty things like lust.

Sakura shrugged slightly while she drove, "I never knew her name, since Itachi basically kept her away from the Manor until she got pretty far in her pregnancy and he moved her into the Manor…then he and Sasuke kept the rest of us away from the Manor. But anyway, he had the kid, but she died in childbirth."

"What?" Naruto asked.

Sakura actually _was_ somber at this point and explained, "The pregnancy had put a lot of stress on her body and her heart could barely handle it. She was given the option of terminating the pregnancy when this became apparent, but she chose to go full term and hope for the best…which didn't happen."

Naruto was silent for a moment, then asked, "How…how do you know all this?" Since for as long as he had known Sasuke, Naruto knew that Sasuke and Itachi respected other people—or at least the concept of privacy—enough that they would not openly speak about such personal choices…especially about people close to them.

"I was a full-time nurse back then. She wasn't my patient, and I wasn't assigned to maternity, but all the nurses knew about it since she was Itachi's lover," Sakura explained.

"Oh…" Naruto said, then in an effort to pull the conversation away from its depressing tone, he asked, "So you aren't a nurse anymore?"

"No, I'm still a nurse," Sakura said in a happier voice, "but now I'm only part-time and work during the weekends and for emergency shift changes."

"Wow, that's impressive," Naruto said. Then he wondered, "What made you stop being full time?"

Sakura was silent for a moment, and then said, "That's why I brought up Itachi and his lover's son."

Naruto was silent, too, while he noticed that Sakura had mentioned that the child was a boy.

Sakura took in a deep breath and gripped the steering wheel tighter, "I'm only part time now because after Itachi died, Sasuke took custody of his son..."

She was silent again, while Naruto wandered why Sasuke's newfound child-caring duties had anything to do with Sakura's work schedule.

Then she continued, "…and now I live in the Manor and take care of him during the week."

Naruto was silent for a moment. Sakura was probably hiding something important from him, like how she and Sasuke were now lovers or something, judging from how many times she had paused and how carefully she was choosing her words.

"Uh, his name is Shisui, after a cousin of theirs and Itachi's best friend as a child," Sakura babbled, probably in response to Naruto's silence.

Naruto mentally shook his head. He shouldn't be silent…he didn't care about whether or not Sakura and Sasuke were sleeping together and already adopted a kid together. It's been ten years since he would have had any inkling towards caring, so it totally did not bother him at all. His silence was just because…he felt sad about Itachi's death!

After all, the guy was kind-of-not-really an older brother to Naruto the amount of times he had been in the Manor—practically living there at times—and how many family functions Sasuke had ordered Naruto to accompany him. Itachi was the one who said that Naruto was practically family; well, Mikoto was, but Itachi had agreed. So even though Naruto was downright terrified of Itachi—any _sane_ person would be—he had always had high regards for Itachi.

"Will the kid be there?" Naruto asked, not wanting a child to see their guardian fly off the hook and become violent like he was expecting Sasuke to become.

Sakura shook her head, "Shisui is still in school, and afterwards has a play date with a school friend, so he won't be in the Manor."

"Uh-huh, and does the bastard know about all this?" Naruto asked.

Sakura jumped a little, and then asked in a high pitched tone than usual, "About all what?"

"You know what," Naruto said with a sigh.

Sakura shook her head and said, "No, I don't know what you're talking about."

Naruto turned so that he was facing her and accused, "You didn't tell the bastard that I was coming, didn't you?"

"Don't call him that!" Sakura exclaimed, but Naruto could tell that she was merely avoiding answering the question rather than defending Sasuke's honor.

"Sakuraaa," said Naruto in a testy tone.

"Alright! Alright! He doesn't know," Sakura admitted.

"Then take me back to the airport," Naruto demanded.

"What why?"

"I see no reason why I should be doing this for the bastard when all he is going to do is forcefully send me out, probably by himself since he's just _love_ to try to kick my ass, and then put YOU through hell for bringing me here in the first place."

"That won't happen, though!"

"And why is that?" Naruto demanded, truly wanting to know what deluded Sakura into this crazy idea.

"Because he'd know that I was just trying to help him!" Sakura insisted.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Sorry to break it to you, Sakura, but your dear bastard won't care."

"And how would _you_ know that?"

"Because I know him!"

"I know him, too!"

"Then you would _obviously_ know that Sasuke HATES it when people try to 'help' him and will not only reject the help, but also hate the person who dared to pity him."

"It's not pity! It's worry!"

"Same thing to the stubborn bastard."

"But—"

"Just take me back so I can go home," Naruto demanded again, turning back to face the window.

Sakura was silent, then whispered, "But you can't go back."

"WHY?" Naruto exploded, then quickly held himself back and demanded in a quieter tone, "_Why_ do I _need_ to stay here?!"

Sakura took her eyes off the empty road briefly to look at him and say, "Because he needs you." Then she turned back to focus on the road.

Naruto groaned, "I wish you'd stop saying that, already."

"Does that mean you agree with me?" Sakura asked excitedly.

"No." Naruto said immediately so that she would not mistake him.

Sakura was silent for a moment, and then asked in a quiet voice, "Please? You guys used to be best friends!"

Naruto froze, and then said, "No." But this time, he did not use the same conviction as he did before.

It was true that they were friends once, but that friendship had ended ten years ago. But even so, Naruto still considered Sasuke—the one from his childhood and NOT the Sasuke he had left—as his friend.

Sakura must have picked up on this, "Then for me?"

"No," Naruto answered again.

But Sakura was not deterred and pressed on, "Then for Shisui."

"What?" Naruto asked, slightly thrown off by the use of a child that he had never met.

Sakura explained, "Since Sasuke is not handling Itachi's death very well, he hasn't been taking care of Shisui."

"WHAT?" Naruto demanded, angrily. That selfish bastard! How DARE he leave A CHILD to fend for himself! Was the poor, helpless bastard just SO caught up in his own little world that he could just ignore a child like that?!

Now Naruto REALLY wanted to go to Uchiha Manor so that he could kick that bastard's ass! Naruto HATED people like that! He dealt with that attitude WAY to many times as a child—and AGAIN when he moved to Suna—and he swore that he wouldn't allow for it anymore!

"Wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Sakura quickly exclaimed when she saw how angry Naruto had gotten.

"Then what DID you mean?" Naruto demanded, still angry at the selfish excuse for a human being.

"He takes great care of Shisui!" Sakura promised.

"But you just said—" Naruto tried to say, but was cut off.

"I know! I know! But I mean that he takes care of Shisui's physical needs, like food and such. He takes care of his education and keeps him going to his elementary school. He even asked me to care for Shisui since he's at the office all say since inheriting Itachi's job after Itachi died. I just meant that he's not acting like a real father." Sakura finished in a quiet tone.

"What do you mean?" Those sounded like father qualities to the orphan.

"I mean that he barely talks with Shisui, like _real_ talking and not like Shisui is a co-worker or whatever," Sakura finally explained properly.

"Oh," was all Naruto could say.

"So for him?" Sakura asked again.

Damn her. Naruto couldn't resist children…ESPECIALLY if they were orphans like he was…

"Pleeeeeease," Sakura asked with a pout.

Naruto supposed that it was supposed to be cute, but since she was asking for something that he _really_ didn't want to do, it just came off as annoying.

"Fine," he said.

"YES!" Sakura cheered to herself with a smug smile.

Dammit. Now Sakura would think that it was her 'cute pout' that got Naruto to agree and would also think that she could make him do almost anything.

He looked out of the window again and was surprised to see just how far they had driven; they had already passed the high school and were nearing the lake.

Naruto smiled when he saw the grass. Suna didn't have much grass on account of how hot it was and that they were closer to a desert than forest like Konoha. It also didn't help that Suna was a giant city, unlike the rural Konoha.

The smile grew more as the lake drew closer. The lake was always filled with great memories; like how during the summer, he and Sasuke would choose the perfect night to camp out under the stars, just the two of them.

Or memories like daring each other to go skinny dipping in the lake, and convincing others so that they could run off with the discarded clothes.

Naruto also remembered just hanging out at the dock, Sasuke reading and Naruto writing down short stories in his notebooks…

…Those were the days…

Naruto shook his head to clear himself of those thoughts as the lake passed by their view behind them.

No, that was over ten years ago, before he left Konoha. The lake was just a body of water within Konoha to him now.

Then Naruto instantly became aware of fact that they had passed the lake…

…That meant that they were less than a mile away from Uchiha Manor!

Naruto's heart rate increased as he grew more nervous.

Just _talking_ about seeing Sasuke again was one thing, but acting _seeing_ the bastard again? And _TALKING_ to the bastard?!

Naruto wasn't sure if he could handle it! Out of the many things that he had trained himself to NOT think about over the years, Sasuke was the very top of the list! He would stop himself whenever he caught himself thinking about the bastard…especially during lonely nights.

He had no idea what he should say to the bastard! '_Sakura came to my apartment in Suna to tell me that you needed help, so here I am!_'…pathetic. '_Hey! So I heard Itachi died, wanna talk about it?_' Ugh! No! '_You're the guardian of a child now! So man up and act like it!_'…if simply being in Konoha didn't earn him a punch in the face, THAT certainly would!

Naruto saw the very long driveway to the Manor, and nearly thought that he would throw up. His hand flew to his mouth so that he could stop it.

"Oh, stop being over dramatic," Sakura scolded Naruto as she turned the car into the driveway.

"I'm NOT being over dramatic!" Naruto defended.

"Yes, you are!" Sakura insisted, "And you need to snap out of it!"

"I can't just 'snap out of it'!" Naruto retorted.

"You need to stop thinking about yourself for once! This isn't about you, but about Sasuke." Sakura ordered him as she pulled into a parking spot.

"Do you really not know how hard it is for me to even be here? You have _no_ idea what happened between me and Sasuke that made me leave in the first place!" Naruto knew he sounded a bit like a whiney teenager, but Sakura was acting like one too!

"I know enough!" Sakura defended, making Naruto give her an incredulous glare, "I know that it tore Sasuke up for the first semester of senior year after you left!"

'_I seriously doubt that_,' Naruto thought to himself, but did not say out loud since Sakura had already left the car.

Heaving a great sigh, Naruto also exited the car and shoved his hands into his pocket as he trudged towards his personal hell.

He headed straight for the large front door and waited in front of it for Sakura to knock on the door so the servants or whoever can open the door. He didn't want to knock and be the only one for the person to see.

Immature as it may be, he needed moral support to enter the Manor, and was even willing to accept it from Sakura.

He turned around slightly to see where Sakura was, and saw her behind him searching through her large purse.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Looking for my keys," Sakura answered, somewhat distractedly, as she continued to dig her hand into the bag and occasionally moving something around.

"What? Why?" Naruto asked, completely perplexed.

Sakura looked up and said, "To open up the door, duh."

Naruto squinted his eyes in confusion, "But what about that dude who would open the door and give me judging looks of I didn't knock in the right way?"

"Oh, the staff?" Sakura asked, "Itachi dismissed them after their parents died. They DID apparently let a doctor live here, and a few nurses when his lover moved in, but after that it's only been Uchihas in there…and me!" Sakura finished with a smile as she held up her keys.

Naruto raised his eyebrows. That was a surprise to him, but he didn't dwell on it as Sakura had bustled passed him to unlock the large door to the Manor.

As the door opened, Naruto's eyebrows scrunched up worriedly, as he was fully expecting one pissed off Uchiha waiting for him and shooting some sort of fireball or knives at him to make him leave.

"C'mon," said Sakura as she gestured for him to follow her through the Manor.

While they walked, Naruto noticed many things that were different since the last time that he had been inside the Manor. For one thing, it was darker as the drapes were closed over the windows. There were also less flowers, as Mikoto Uchiha had enjoyed 'brightening up the place', and would also allow Naruto to help her choose which flowers should go where…he missed her…

One thing that struck Naruto was the amount of pictures on the wall of the Uchiha family.

He gave Sakura a pointed look, silently asking what was the deal with the pictures because the Sasuke he knew didn't like pictures of himself. Naruto dared not ask out loud in case the bastard would materialize out of nowhere and swing an electric sword at him from the shadows.

"Oh, these are for Shisui," Sakura answered. When Naruto's confusion grew, she elaborated, "Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha died before he was born, and he never knew his mother, so Itachi had these hung up around the Manor so that he could at least know what they looked like."

Naruto nodded in understanding. As a child, he had always wished that he knew who his family was and sure would have appreciated photographic proof that they existed. He didn't even learn their names until after he had to move to Suna and met his mentor who coincidentally knew his parents.

"Shisui has taken quite a liking to them," Sakura continued conversationally as Naruto nodded along, after all pictures of relatives were precious. "Apparently, while he was younger, Itachi would go through photo albums with him all the time."

Naruto nodded again. That seemed sweet of Itachi to do; Naruto remembered enjoying learning who his parents were when his mentor had shown him a picture of them.

"Sasuke is usually in there," Sakura pointed towards the room that Naruto recognized as Mr. Uchiha's office—er…_former_ office. Naruto didn't know what to call it anymore since Mr. Uchiha was now the late Mr. Uchiha.

"So, uh, I guess I'll go in first," Sakura suggested a bit timidly. FINALLY she started to realize just how tense things would get if she put Sasuke and Naruto in the same room.

Naruto nodded, since it would help no one if he went in first.

Sakura knocked on the door, but might as well have not have since she walked in immediately thereafter. Naruto barely had enough time to hide against the wall.

As she entered, she left the door slightly ajar so that Naruto could hear what was going on inside.

"Hi, Sasuke!" he heard Sakura greet the bastard in a forcefully excited tone.

Naruto inched closer to the door and saw that through the crack he could see Sakura.

"What do you want?" was the curt reply.

Naruto had to place his hand to his mouth to keep himself from gasping…that was Sasuke's voice. It sounded a little deeper, but other than that just like Naruto remembered!

"How has your day been?" Sakura started doing small talk. Poor girl, she obviously couldn't tell that the bastard didn't want to be disturbed by his tone.

"Hn," Sasuke's voice grunted. That meant that he was just trying to block her out.

"I know I wasn't there to drop Shisui off at school this morning, so did you drive him there?" Sakura continued.

"Hn," Sasuke's voice grunted, meaning that he was wondering why she was asking such a mundane and obvious question.

"I, uh, I was thinking, while I was out, that we, uh, we can buy more furniture? I mean, the place _is_ kind of drab," Sakura was grasping for topics for the bastard to participate in.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, meaning no way in hell, with the possibility of adding a 'bitch' in there for using the term 'we'.

"Uh…lovely weather we're having? You know, I never really thought about it, but Konoha weather is perfect," said Sakura, but before she could continue talking about the weather, though, she was interrupted.

"What do you want?" Sasuke demanded in a clipped tone, showing just how annoyed he was with Sakura.

She seemed to sense it, because her posture was rigid from what Naruto could see from the crack, and she was silent.

Then she stammered, "I, uh, well…the reason I left…uh,"

"You had a 'girls night out'. You told me. Now leave." Sasuke demanded, his tone becoming increasingly more frustrated.

Sakura became a strange combination of losing the color in her face, and blushing since all the color seemed to go straight to her cheeks.

"Well, uh," she stammered as her eyes widened in fear, "that…isn't entirely…true…"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, meaning that he didn't care and that he wanted her out of the office.

Man, maybe ten years wasn't enough time away, since Naruto could still translate bastard-ese to human.

"Th-the reason I left was…to help you…" her eyes widened dramatically, probably because Sasuke was glaring at her or something, "and," she squeaked, "I…uh…I went to Suna—"

"Why?" Sasuke demanded in a louder voice.

"To…uh…to—" Sakura tried to say, but she was stuttering too much. She seemed so lost, and she even threw the door a glance practically screaming for help.

Naruto braced himself, took a deep breath, and opened the door and said, "She came to Suna to get me."

The room's temperature must have dropped several degrees…not that Naruto would know since he just entered it.

Then Naruto saw Sasuke.

After ten years, it was the first time that both men were in the same room.

Sasuke didn't change much. Maybe a difference here or there, but his hair was still the same: it was a duck's butt. It looked like Somalia.

Sasuke was staring at him, and was sitting behind Mr. Uchiha's old fancy desk, and had his hands pressed on the desk in preparation for standing up abruptly.

Naruto was scared. He could honestly admit to himself that he was scared in that moment that Sasuke would throw the desk at him…not that he would allow the other to know about his fear.

The only thing that kept Naruto from bolting out of the room to hotwire Sakura's car was that Sasuke was not glaring at him, or at least, not his signature Uchiha Glare.

Instead, Sasuke seemed…_surprised_ to see Naruto…which was understandable. After all, the last thing Naruto had said was that he would never return to Konoha. Sasuke's black eyes were wide and black eyebrows were raised with his surprise and confusion.

Naruto could tell that Sasuke was mentally doing a reality check by the slight crease in his eyebrows, and decided to take advantage of it.

"So stop being such a pompous ass and thank Miss Haruno for being worried about your ungrateful ass," Naruto ordered, continuing his 'rescue' for Sakura.

The bastard was silent, which wouldn't matter if it was anyone else…but this was Sasuke; so the silence seriously freaked Naruto out since he was convinced that Sasuke was plotting some form of sneaky violence to use against him.

But Naruto needed to push passed that. He had come with a mission: to force Sasuke into a reality check and leave. So he couldn't let anyone know just how much being in the same room as the bastard bothered, or how hard it was to not bolt out of the room.

"Seriously," Naruto continued as if he wasn't feeling nauseous, "your Ice Prince routine isn't fooling anyone. I haven't been here for two minutes and I can tell that there's something wrong with you, aside from the permanent stick up your ass."

The stare morphed into a glare as the bastard demanded, "And who the hell asked you?"

Naruto gestured backwards with his head and said, "Sakura. And you should be thankful that she did, you ass."

"And why, pray tell, should I feel 'thankful' that Haruno stuck her nose where it doesn't belong?" Sasuke's tone became more clipped and angry, making Naruto mentally—and physically—brace himself.

Naruto heard a small gasp behind him, "Hey! Don't go picking fights with your friends when they only did what they thought they needed to do?"

"And what '_friends_' are you speaking about?" Sasuke demanded with a sneer.

"Sakura! Who else?!" Naruto shouted back, flinging his hand in Sakura's direction to show who he was talking about.

Sasuke scoffed and looked away for a moment.

"She's worried because she said that you haven't been doing well since Itachi died," Naruto said in a quieter voice.

Whoops. Bad idea to bring up Itachi judging by Sasuke's reaction.

Sasuke visibly froze for a moment, and then stood up abruptly making the chair fall behind him. His eyes were wide, and using the full might of the Uchiha Glare.

"And what would YOU know about Itachi?!" Sasuke practically shouted.

"Lee told me," Naruto retorted immediately, standing his own against the Uchiha Glare and sending Sasuke one himself. He was quite proud of himself for being able to, since he heard Sakura squeak in fear behind him.

"Fucking Lee," Sasuke grumbled as he glared at his desk.

"Yeah, yeah, he's a friggin' gossip," Naruto agreed, rubbing the back of his neck, "but he also told me that everyone has noticed how badly you're taking it."

Sasuke eyes flared a little as he glared back up at Naruto and seethed, "Oh they have, have they?"

"DUH! Or else I wouldn't be here!" Naruto exclaimed waving his arms a little to emphasize how big of a deal this was.

"And why ARE _you_ here?!" Sasuke demanded angrily.

"I told you, you deaf bastard! Because Sakura begged me to help you!" Naruto shouted back, again gesturing towards Sakura.

"I'm _FINE_." Sasuke sent a glare to Sakura, making her squeak in fear again.

Naruto stepped to the side to completely block her from Sasuke and retorted, "No, you're NOT."

"And how would you know?! You haven't been here in TEN YEARS!" Sasuke shouted the last part.

"WELL MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE STAYED AWAY IF YOU'RE SO '_FINE_'!" Naruto shouted back.

"Yes, you should have, because you certainly aren't wanted here," Sasuke didn't shout this time, only emphasize his words.

Those words almost exactly mirrored Naruto and Sasuke's last conversation together and momentarily struck Naruto speechless.

But he wouldn't let Sasuke know this, so he composed himself and turned back to Sakura with a forced grin that he hoped appeared apologetic and said in a calmer voice, "I told you that my coming here wouldn't make a difference."

"Naruto—" Sakura whispered, but she was cut off.

"And YOU!" Naruto turned around to glare at the bastard, "You better get your act together so that this wasn't a COMPLETE waste of time!"

"Yes, it wa—" Sasuke started to say.

"Oh, fuck you," Naruto hissed. "Sakura here bought THREE plane tickets for her to go to Suna and to force me here, and now I'm buying a ticket so I can go home. So you BETTER pull yourself together so I won't be forced back, since a little birdie tells me that you are now the guardian of one little nephew."

Sasuke's eyes flashed with anger, and said, "You don't kn—"

"And speaking as an orphan," Naruto interrupted Sasuke again, "I know that what he needs HUMAN INTERACTION, and _not_ your Ice Prince routine."

"You—" said Sasuke, but he was once again interrupted, since Naruto just _knew_ that he wouldn't be able to keep himself as outwardly composed as he currently was portraying if he let the bastard say another word.

"And for the record, I never _wanted_ to come back _here_," Naruto said with disdain as if he was disgusted with the very idea instead of afraid like he truly was, "I was at home doing work when Sakura came knocking on my door because she is at her wit's end trying to deal with you. I refused, but she was truly desperate, because SOMEONE won't just accept that they need help." Naruto said, giving him a critical eye. Then he continued, "I was called in because apparently no one else knows how to deal with you, you ass. So here I am, your personal wake-up call: Man up and admit you need some help!"

Sasuke looked livid, which was predicted since Naruto intentionally poked holes at his pride.

Naruto knew that he was close to pushing Sasuke off the edge. Ten years ago, he would have delivered the final blow, and let Sasuke vent out all his frustrations out onto him in an all-out brawl, since he was Sasuke's best friend and knew that not only was it the easiest way for Sasuke to deal with things, but that Naruto could take it.

But now, Naruto had no intention of doing things the easy way for Sasuke, and decided to make things easier for himself instead.

"Don't make me have to come back here," Naruto warned as he walked briskly—at a controlled pace so that he could leave quickly but it seemed purposeful—out of the room and slammed the door.

After the door was safely closed and Sasuke could no longer see Naruto, he hurried down the hallway as quietly as he could, passed the pictures that Shisui apparently liked.

It was not until after he had rushed down the stairs did he hear Sakura calling for him.

He ignored her and continued to run so he could just leave.

He should have never come! What did he expect?! That Sasuke would smile at him like he used to and declare them best friends again? That the bastard actually have a conversation with him? That Sasuke at least apologize?

Naruto was an idiot for even hoping.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out.

But he just shook his head, even if she couldn't see him. He didn't trust himself to not get choked up or explode in anger if he talked.

"Naruto Namikaze!" Sakura shouted.

That made Naruto stop.

He turned around, and saw that Sakura too had stopped a little ways behind him.

He glared at her and said, "That's not my name."

"Naruto…" Sakura said in a tired voice, as if she just didn't want to deal with his _petty_ problems so she could focus on her oh-so-important problems.

"No!" Naruto told her, "'Naruto Namikaze' is _not_ my name!"

Sakura sighed, "Does it really matter?"

"Yes. It. Does." Naruto said with determination. Just changing his last name might not have seemed like a big deal on the surface, but to Naruto it was a HUGE deal. It symbolized how he refused to be the person he used to be in Konoha and that he was his own person. Having Sakura deny him that was a slap in the face and made him realize that she probably truly viewed him as the kid she used to manipulate instead of as an equal.

Sakura gave him a strange look, then gestured towards the office Sasuke was in and exclaimed, "You need to go back!"

Naruto threw his head back and barked out a harsh laugh. It had taken him an exponential amount of self-control to get himself in that room, let alone this CITY, in the first place; and he used the rest of his self-control to keep himself from bolting out of there with his tail in between his legs.

"I mean it!" Sakura told him, advancing towards him. She probably assumed that she could force him to go back there.

Naruto stopped laughing so that he could glare at her again, making Sakura stop in her tracks.

"No," he declared once more.

Sakura gave her own little, ineffective glare and said, "But Sasuke—"

Naruto groaned loudly, "ENOUGH about Sasuke!"

Sakura looked affronted and tried to say something, but Naruto cut her off again.

"Ever since you came barging through my door yesterday, it's been _Sasuke this_ and _Sasuke that_! I'm sick of it! And I did what you asked: I gave him his fucking reality check," Naruto exclaimed.

"And don't you see?" Sakura said with her eyes lit with a slight excitement, "You are the ONLY one to be able to say anything like that to him! If you go back—"

"I don't care! I'm NOT going back!" Naruto told her.

"But—" Sakura tried to say.

"Do you even have any idea how hard it is for me to be here?" Naruto demanded to know.

"Well, I—"

"No, you don't! And you should keep asking me to do more than I can handle! God! Just BEING here is enough to make me nauseous!"

"But why would being here make you nauseous?" Sakura sounded truly confused.

Naruto turned around, but faced his head to the side and spat out, "Why don't you ask the bastard the REAL reason why I left."

With that he started to walk away. But before he could get far, he heard a scurry behind him and felt a small hand on his shoulder.

He stopped, but didn't turn around.

"Here," Sakura said as Naruto heard her bustling through her purse, "I'm giving you my keys. You can drive anywhere but the airport. You won't even have to worry about buying a plane ticket, because I'll get that covered later."

Naruto sighed. He just wanted to _leave_.

"And!" Sakura said loudly, as if she was going to interrupt Naruto before he could say anything, "I'll even take care of dinner, just meet me at this address on the card!"

Naruto sighed again, and held out his hand behind him where he felt Sakura thrust some objects into his hand. He looked at them and saw that she had given him her keys on a pink keychain, and a business card.

Naruto shoved the items in his pocket and mumbled, "Maybe…" since he really wasn't in the mood to see people; ESPECIALLY people from Konoha.

"Please?" Sakura asked.

"On one condition," Naruto told her in a quiet, subdued tone as he could feel the energy draining from his body.

"Yes? What?" Sakura asked eagerly.

"Say my name," Naruto challenged.

"Naruto Nami—" Sakura started to say.

"My REAL name!" Naruto interrupted her, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to keep his damn emotions in check.

There was a pause, then Sakura said, "Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto nodded, then sped-walked to the car, and quickly drove as far away from the Uchiha Manor as he could. He needed to get away.

* * *

**And that was the story.**

**So, I had this test in anthropology, and studying for it was sooooooooo hard because we'd been in the class for two hours every other day (in an 8sm class!) for over three weeks, and all I had to show for it was—less than—a HALF a page of notes! The professor was big on using stories to emphasize his points and would often get off on many tangents and would only write down key words, if that. So, in an effort to seem productive and study, I copied down the reading summaries for ten of the twelve readings we've had to do for class…and then we took the test and there was no essay or short question: only True/False and Multiple Choice questions. Usually, that would be super AMAZING! But there was only 35 questions that I finished in 20 minutes. So now I have the same suspicious fear that the whole test was a lie and I got everything wrong, kind of like when a math test goes WAY to easy and you start to question life since there's no WAY that things could be that easy…O.0**

**Anyway, thank you for those who favorite/alert this story, and an extra special thanks to those who review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**To de-stress myself—or to reward myself—I will often watch movies I used to watch as a child. Like The Swan Princess! I like to call it the Conveniently Fast Moving Plot Movie, because in the first song, they go from YEARS of loathing each other to having True Love after one glace thanks to convenient hormones! And later, literally within 26 seconds: the lovers reunite and Derek is told to leave. The lines are literally: "Derek, I've missed you so!" "No one believed me, but I knew it!" "You can't stay!" "What?" It always makes me laugh LOL!**

**Anyhoo, onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Naruto jammed Sakura's keys into the ignition of her car.

"DAMMIT!" he shouted when it wouldn't turn properly. So he took it out and jammed it in with more force.

They keys finally turned properly and the engine was on. "Finally!" Naruto grumbled to himself, and practically ripped the shift from the car as he put the car into reverse.

He drove backwards a bit, so he could drive out of the driveway onto the main road. He wasn't sure where he wanted to go, but he sure as hell knew where he _didn't_ want to go, and that was the direction that he and Sakura had arrived in with the high school.

With this firmly in mind, as soon as he reached the end of the driveway: Naruto drove in the opposite direction that he and Sakura had arrived in, further in town.

Naruto was barely paying attention to where he was going…all he was focused on was getting _away_.

Away from Uchiha Manor. Away from Sasuke. Away from Sakura. Away from the responsibilities. Away from the guilt. Away from the butterflies.

Away from the memories!

The only problem with his plan of getting _away_ was that _away_ was further in Konoha.

Dammit.

But that didn't matter! Okay, it DID matter… But not nearly as much as his impending mission to distance himself from Uchiha Manor and all it held.

Other large houses passed by without Naruto noticing. The thing about Konoha was how rural it was in comparison to Suna. In a big city like Suna, Naruto did not have to travel far to get away from his thoughts. Hell, he didn't even need a car OR a cab! He could just walk a few blocks and get lost in the people.

But ohhhhhhh no. Naruto's couldn't do anything like that in _Konoha_. In KONOHA, Naruto had to frickin' DRIVE to lose sight of the grassy fields, the lake, and the surrounding forest…and even then, they are in the peripheral vision!

Naruto gripped the wheel harder with frustration.

Why the hell did he even agree to come to Konoha?! Seriously, the only reactions to him being there by his so called 'friends' were demanding that he move back for them and for him to leave immediately! No 'how have you been?', no promised for _them_ to keep in touch—nooooooooooooo _Naruto_ had to be held responsible for keeping in touch with those ungrateful people—and no apologies! Not even a simple apology for not bothering to keep in touch!

Naruto sped—at the speed limit—through the city portion of Konoha; if it could be called a city. As a child, Naruto had thought it to be a large city as there were many buildings crammed together and a large city hall; and even the two tallest buildings of Uchiha Corp and Hyuuga Inc. But now, after living in a _real_ city like Suna for ten years, a place complete with multiple skyscrapers and the smallest buildings are only three or four stories high, Konoha was simply _rural_.

As soon as Naruto had passed the 'city' portion of Konoha, he started driving slower. Not only because the speed limit dropped, but because he was forcing himself to calm down. It would do no good for Naruto to be pegged with a speeding ticket or something and be forced to return to this blasted place to pay for it.

He wanted to leave as soon as possible and never return.

But before that, Naruto needed to calm down fully. So he searched for a place to park Sakura's car so he could take a walk.

While Naruto searched for a proper parking spot, he noticed something: he had driven himself near his old neighborhood…

Waves of memories threatened to overwhelm Naruto, so he forced himself to look for parking lots. Parking lots were safe, and useful. They were meant for people to park cars, so Naruto should look for one. Parking lots…

He used to walk on that sidewalk so he could go to his grocery store nearby…

NO! No sidewalk! Parking lot!

Naruto would wait on that bench for the bus to take him to school until the bastard got a car—a freaking _Camaro_—and would drive him to school despite Naruto pointing out that Sasuke was driving way out of his way to pick Naruto up for school. Sasuke had always insisted that it was no problem and that he wanted to, and had told Naruto to stop worrying about it.

NO! No bastardly memories! Parking lot!

He and Sasuke had convinced some college girls to sell them alcohol at that liquor store one summer…

No! No liquor store! Parking lot!

He and Sasuke—

No! Parking lot!

_Finally_, Naruto spotted a parking lot, albeit a slightly small one, and immediately drove into it, focused on parking so that these damn intruding memories wouldn't cause an accident.

After he pulled into a space near the back so he wouldn't be in the way of people using the parking lot for the intended purpose of entering the store or whatever, Naruto stepped outside and realized just whose parking lot it was…

Ichiraku Ramen.

This place was practically Naruto's third home, with his apartment being the first and Uchiha Manor being the second. Ichiraku Ramen was where Naruto would go for everything: celebration, a pick-me-up, got bored, needs to calm down, to eat, and to simply eat. If someone couldn't find Naruto right away, it was a safe bet that he'd be in Ichiraku Ramen.

This also happened to be his first job: he was a dishwasher and helped around back when he was little. Technically, he couldn't get paid because of child labor laws; so he was paid in free meals. Which was _no_ problem for the ramen-addict. As he got older, he moved up in the restaurant. Later, he would become a bus-boy during his free time and the owner's daughter, Ayame, would share her tips with him because of his being unable to accept a real paycheck. Then, when he as old enough, he worked part-time as a waiter, with a paycheck and everything.

Naruto wanted to go in…just to see if Ichiraku Ramen was still run by Teuchi, or if he had given it to Ayame, like they had sometimes talked about whenever Teuchi thought aloud about retiring. That old geezer…he would sometimes complain on a busy night that he couldn't keep up and that he should retire. And whenever Ayame or Naruto agreed, he would insist that no one else could cook ramen like he did…which Naruto would agree to. Then Ayame would ask him whose fault that is because he refused to tell anyone else his secret recipe; including Ayame and Naruto despite being asked many times. Then near the end, Teuchi would agree to share his secrets with Ayame, but _only_ with Ayame, much to Naruto's disappointment, but never got around to it. And Naruto wanted to see if anything had changed within the past decade…

But no…that could wait…he didn't want to sully his reunion with the best restaurant known to mankind and even in the known universe with his bad mood. Naruto would just go on a walk, and return to the best place on earth—and known universe—after he calmed himself down.

With that in mind, Naruto did just that: he walked.

He didn't want to go anywhere near the 'city', even though there were barely any triggers in his opinion since he barely spent any quality time there while Naruto still lived in Konoha. Many times he would walk through it and marvel at 'city life' and maybe think about his future in this 'city', but he would mostly just wander around out of boredom or to lose himself in his thoughts.

But Naruto was in no mood for that, since he greatly suspected that if he were to attempt that today, he'd just get frustrated with the lack of _true_ city life, in his biased opinion, that he'd gotten accustomed to in Suna. Then he'd wonder why he wasn't in Suna, and _that_ would just lead him full circle back to frustration. So the 'city' was a no-go.

That meant that he'd have to walk further through his old neighborhood.

Just great.

Naruto cursed Konoha again. Now this blasted city took away his favorite and most reliable way to calm himself down: by taking him out his thoughts for a while by losing himself in the city. But dammit, Konoha _wasn't_ a city! And he _couldn't_ just get lost in this non-city because it's KONOHA! Dammit.

He took a deep breath…everything would be okay if he could calm himself.

Calm, dammit!

So in order to achieved a proper state of inner peace or whatever, Naruto chose to focus on little things. Like grass.

Grass was nice. Suna didn't have much grass, and to be honest, Naruto missed grass. Whenever he got to travel for work, Naruto would put some time aside so that he could find a patch of grass to take a nap. It irked his assistant to no end, so many times said nap was impromptu.

Naruto faced the ground, and decided that he would not pay attention to where he was heading. As long as he was in the opposite direction of the 'city', he was fine.

So he focused on hopping over cracks. Not just the standard separating gaps of the sidewalk, but the little ones as well. He decided to make a game of it: only one actual step per square. He had to jump the rest. Maybe, he'd take two steps every other square, but there certainly was a lot of jumping since there were a lot of cracks in Konoha's sidewalks. More cracks than in Suna.

Then he saw a swirl engraved into the concrete of the sidewalk that he was about to jump over.

Wait—he recognized that kind of swirl…it looked just like the types of swirls that Naruto would draw, and sometimes graffiti, all over the place when he was younger. That was during the time in elementary and middle school when he barely had any friends and needed to vent out his anger to get attention.

Naruto looked up and saw that he was actually near his old elementary school.

Now he remembered: one night when he was walking around, he had noticed that someone had set up wet concrete over one square of the sidewalk to dry overnight. In hindsight, he knew that the timing had been specific to after the kids had gotten out of school to avoid vandalism…but at the time all Naruto could think was 'perfect opportunity'.

Naruto let himself give a wry smile. He had been so proud of himself back then and couldn't wait to brag to his best friend, Sasuke, about it. But back then, Sasuke was a part of some 'gifted' program for friggin' geniuses and was not in any of Naruto's classes, so the only time that they could meet was after school and during the weekends. They would mostly hang out at their dock by the lake, where Naruto had planned to—and did—tell Sasuke all about his epic permanent vandalism.

He looked over to the school. He did _not_ have many fond memories of this place.

His eyes wandered over to the swing that was set up by the furthest tree from the school within the gates. It had been the only tree with strong enough branches, but it could only hold one person at a time and it was all by itself, so it was not as wildly popular as the teachers or whoever intended. The swing was basically forgotten, except for when Naruto was exiled there because of his unpopular status.

Naruto never understood why he was a social pariah as a child, and had internalized it because of the lack of explanation. But in hindsight, it was all clear. It was because he was an orphan. Or rather, because his lack of parents made him unconnected. In Konoha, the social system was 'it's not _what_ you know, but _who_ you now'. And Naruto was neither anyone who needed to be known for success, nor anyone who it was obvious that he would become one. He was a nobody, and no one bothered to change that.

Well, he showed them, fuckers. Naruto Uzumaki was now a published author, dammit. He _made_ himself into somebody, and he was fucking proud oh himself.

Naruto flipped his old school the bird and continued walking.

As he walked, more objects became familiar to him. Naruto used to walk these streets all the time during his childhood. So many times, in fact, that he was near positive that he could close his eyes and be able to find his way ho…find his way back to his old apartment.

Naruto looked up and yep, there his apartment was. It was the tallest building in the area, and one of the most run down. It really was a cheap place.

That place was his constant throughout all his years in Konoha. Not many things had changed about that place; it even looked the same from the outside from being away for a decade. There was even a swirl he had painted on the side of the building years ago.

Naruto gave a rueful smile. There was probably the same old fashioned stove in there, and old kitchen, and old furniture. Naruto never knew where they had come; just that they had always been there since he moved in as a preteen.

Konoha was not famous for its child services.

Naruto had left Konoha so quickly, that he had left the majority of his things and only took the essential with him: like his collection of ramen. He made sure to tell that the things he had left behind were donated to charity through someone who had kept in touch with. So the old furniture was probably still there since certainly whoever lived in his old apartment complex could not afford much lavish things like new furniture and he had left everything intact.

Well, _most_ everything. He DID destroy the chair that Sasuke had bought for him, er, for himself actually. Sasuke never liked Naruto's furniture since it was too poor for his posh and pompous tastes. But Sasuke loved the privacy of Naruto's apartment, so he insisted upon buying a comfortable and expensive chair that he could use for himself. It was also a reclining chair, so he would sleep on it sometimes whenever he would sleep over. Or Naruto would, whenever the blonde would insist that the guest be able to sleep on the bed.

Yea…that chair was scraps after…after everything.

Damn, this whole walk idea to calm down was so not working.

So Naruto continued on his way, hoping to distance himself from depressing places with depressing memories of bastardy bastards with their bastard-ness.

As he continued walking, Naruto noticed that there was more grass.

He looked up and smiled. Like, real smile.

He found his tree.

Naruto walked up the hill so that he would just lean against his tree.

His tree was always special to him, it was his alone place whenever his apartment was too stifling. Just whenever he wanted to be outside, and did not feel the need to surround himself with people. His tree was always peaceful, and always let him simply relax.

This was where he would do all of his serious thinking whenever he was stuck. Stuck on a story idea? He went to his tree. Stuck on homework? He went to his tree. Stuck with how to help Sakura's problems or anyone else close to him? He went to his tree. Stuck on whether or not to talk to Sasuke? He went to his tree…which turned out to be the biggest mistake of his life since _that_ conversation led to their fight and Naruto leaving Konoha.

Naruto sighed as he sat down and leaned against his tree. No, that was not true. Talking with Sasuke then was _not_ the biggest mistake of his life. If anything: it was a blurse, or a blessing in disguise.

That conversation, the one that Naruto had been blocking out for ten years, was something that had forced him to open his eyes. In the end, he was _glad_ that he had had that conversation! It showed him who Sasuke really was! A pompous BASTARD who could never accept Naruto for who he truly was! Or, in Sasuke's case and many other bigots in Konoha, _WHAT_ Naruto was: a fag.

Naruto frowned at that. All during his seventeen years in Konoha, he had tried his best to hide who he was, and he was miserable because of it. He gave a wry smirk, it was true what they said: being in the closet was dark lonely.

But when he was tired of it all, and wanted to be accepted for who he really was, he thought that things would be different. He had gone to another friend, Hinata, who apparently had a huge crush on him for advice earlier. When she had told—whispered to—him about her crush on him, he had to come out to her since there was no way in hell that he could hurt someone as precious and innocent as HINATA with a lie. She had deserved to know the truth about his sexuality; and she had accepted him.

That had given him the boost to tell everyone about his being gay: starting with Sasuke. And he had made his decision to do so under this tree. Then that went to hell and he left Konoha.

Naruto nodded to himself. When he thought about it: leaving was the best thing that he had ever done for himself.

If he hadn't left, then he'd still be miserable and living a lie. He would probably be at a dead-end office job since there were no publishing companies in Konoha and he would not have needed to push himself like he did when he was homeless in Suna. And he would still have been hung up over his self-destructing crush over his best friend…

Naruto slapped himself on one of his scarred cheeks.

There was no use thinking about that. Naruto had left Konoha and made a home and living for himself in Suna. He _loved_ living in Suna! People there accepted him for who he was: Naruto Uzumaki!

Naruto NAMIKAZE was weak. Namikaze was a miserable lie of a person, who bent to the will of others so that he could be accepted by others, even if it didn't matter whether or not he liked them or even knew them. Namikaze hid himself from the world, and hid his feelings from everybody.

But now he was Naruto Uzumaki. UZUMAKI was someone he was proud to be, and someone that he refused to hide. He had changed his name for a reason, and took great pride for his decision.

Besides, he was also proud of the life he, Naruto Uzumaki, had created for himself in Suna. He had gone from runaway orphan living on the streets to successful author living in a comfortable apartment building with his awesome roommate, Gaara.

Naruto looked up at the branches of trees beseechingly, as if he needed to truly convey this to the one living thing—trees were _totally_ living—that knew all of his secrets when he lived in Konoha. He was _HAPPY_. His life was GREAT. He was at peace with himself! Well, _he_ thought so. Gaara's sister, Temari, fancied herself a therapist or something and kept spouting out things about Naruto needing _closure_ since he refused to talk about Konoha.

Naruto sighed, and silently assured his tree that that was not the case. He most certainly did _not_ need closure because he had moved on. Naruto Uzumaki was at peace because Konoha did not mean anything to him.

His tree understood. Naruto could totally tell. His tree was awesome like that.

With that understood, Naruto decided to take a nap. Sakura had said that she would take care of buying a ticket, so he didn't need to worry about his finances. Not that he had financial troubles or anything; he just didn't like to deal with it. Gaara and his assistant did that for him.

He should probably tell Sakura to get him out of here as soon as possible. Knowing her, she would choose something like tomorrow on Saturday, or later like on Sunday so that she could get her way.

But Naruto would not let that happen. Oh no, he would not. If that turned out to be true, then he would just buy a ticket for himself and Sakura could get reimbursed. Or he rent himself a hotel room—a _nice_ one that has room service and a spa in the hotel 'cause he can afford stuff like that now—and shut himself away with the security of knowing that no one from Konoha could bother him in his hotel room.

Aw, hut he did not have Sakura's number. Which was surprising, considering that the girl was freaking attached to her weird smart phone thing.

He didn't want her number, really. If he did, then she could consider _him_ responsible for 'keeping in touch'. But it would have been useful in the moment. He needed to tell her that he planned on leaving as soon as possible.

Oh well, that could wait after his nap. Naps were good; especially naps underneath his tree. Those were epic, full of the epic 'hello world' mood when he woke up. It was every time, without fail. It was epic.

He checked the time and saw that it was just around noon. Yeah, he had time for his nap.

**Coming Back**

When Naruto woke up, he felt ready to conquer the world.

In this euphoric state, he knew that he could walk briskly back to Ichiraku Ramen without thinking about depressing memories. He could do it, and then get rewarded with ramen.

Naruto checked the time, and it was just before three. Great! Ramen tasted better after three! That was when Teuchi would grab new ingredients for the after school rush; but back then the 'rush' was 'Naruto and his pit of a stomach'.

Maybe that had changed, but it was so ingrained into the schedule that hopefully it didn't.

With that in mind, Naruto hoisted himself up fully intent on heading back.

Then, Naruto turned back to face his tree and whispered, "Thank you," for listening to his silent rants. His tree was awesome like that.

Naruto turned back around and hurried down the hill. Whenever it had snowed, Naruto would rush to sled down the hill since it was the closest one within very close walking distance.

He started walking briskly back to Ichiraku Ramen. In this euphoric state, it did not take nearly as long as it had taken to walk to his tree and Naruto quite enjoyed that.

As he walked past his old apartment building, he was able to see the finer details that had previously eluded him, like a miniature garden on his old windowsill. Of course, his was more lush and full of bright, colorful flowers, but the new tenant must have realized how therapeutic gardening was because they bothered to keep up the hard work. Either that, or they might have considered it a natural thing of the apartment, like the furniture, since Naruto had left his garden behind in his haste to leave.

Maybe Naruto should give Gaara a call, or a small text message about his new garden. With Naruto's funds no longer on meager savings like they had been when he was living in Konoha, he was able to acquire himself quite a nice garden that he was very proud of. Gaara seemed to appreciate it to, or at least never complained, so he should be willing to help while Naruto was in hell—er, KONOHA.

As Naruto walked by the school, he stopped to notice that the children were rushing to pack things up.

Naruto wondered about that for a moment, then realized that it was in fact time for schools to set loose the children. Now that he was older, he could notice things that had escaped him like a child, like the expression of relief on the teacher's face.

He noticed that there were parents waiting just a little ways off from where he was standing; mostly mothers. Naruto did not want to portray himself off as some creeper person who stalked children at school, so he continued walking with his hands _out_ of his pockets so the lovely women would not become paranoid and assume that his hands were in his pockets for sinister reasons.

While doing this amongst other small changes, like relaxing his brow and keeping his head high, to outwardly show that he was not a menace, Naruto marveled at how times had changed. Fifteen years ago when he had attended the school, there were not that many adults waiting for them as the children got out of school. Konoha was a small town so there was assumed safety and the kids were allowed to run off wherever like he and Sasuke did practically every day.

But maybe Naruto was just overanalyzing things because he lived in the city for so long. Konoha and Suna were practically worlds apart, so Naruto might really just be over-reacting with his precautionary measures.

Children ran by him as he continued on his way, all the while talking very loudly. It did not bother Naruto in the slightest, though. In fact, he enjoyed it since some things said made no sense to him.

"—And then, and then, and then her but EXPLODED with baby spiders! So Finn and Jake were saved! But then the baby spiders tried to eat them!"

"—said that she doesn't like the Tinkerbelle movies because that isn't 'the _real_ Tinkerbelle' or whatever—"

"—mom said that we couldn't play it because it was rated M, whatever that means. But my older brother isn't at home since he spends all his time with his girlfriend so I could sneak it over—"

"—said that he doesn't like One Direction because they aren't a _real_ band! And I'm like, of COURSE they are a real band!—"

"—couldn't get the movie because my parents learned that that's what my book report is about—"

"—Dude that's TOTALLY a great idea for a video! We're going to get so many hits!—"

"—and then he winked at me! I swear it!—"

Naruto smiled a bit. Maybe things _had_ changed with time, but the babbles of elementary students never would, even though now the conversations seemed to be mostly dominated by the media.

"Mommy, look! That man has whiskers on his cheeks!"

Naruto turned to the direction where the voice had come from, and saw two boys—one with brown hair and one with black hair—with a woman with brown hair. The boy with brown hair was holding the woman's hand and pointing at Naruto with his other hand.

"Honey, that's rude!" the woman exclaimed, rushing to lower the little boy's hand.

"But he does, Mommy! He has whiskers!" the little boy insisted, looking between his mother and Naruto.

The woman was blushing a deep red, and had been ever since she realized that Naruto was very aware that he was being pointed at. But Naruto did not mind his scars being pointed out at that moment; he was in a good mood and he knew for a fact that these young children—no older than seven or eight, he would say—had absolutely NO idea who he was or idea about the significance of his scars.

Naruto smiled and walked towards them. He gave the woman a reassuring smile—in his opinion at least—and knelt down a good foot away from the children and said, "Hey, kid. Your mother's right, you know. It's rude to point."

The kid with brown hair that was pointing flushed a little at being addressed by the man he was just talking about and looked over to his black-haired friend for help.

The black-haired kid blushed, too, and said weakly, "But you really _do_ have whiskers…"

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows together in fake confusion and tilted his head to the side and asked, "I do? Where?"

The brunette seemed to have gained his confidence back because he pointed at Naruto's face again and said, "There!"

Naruto turned his attention back to the kid and said, "Ah-HA! You're pointing again!"

The kid retracted his hand a bit, but before he could take it away completely, Naruto declared, "Now I can challenge you to a duel!"

"What?" the kid asked, but Naruto did not answer with words. Instead he raised his own finger, and made to—SLOWLY—poke at the boy's arm.

He did so with a deliberate slowed pace, so that the boy could realize what was going on and defend himself with his own little finger.

With no time, the adult man was waged in a finger war with the little boy. After his initial poke, Naruto allowed the little boy to attempt to attack and went on the defensive.

Then the little boy shouted, "Shisui! Help!"

Naruto didn't have time to register the name because the little black-haired boy stepped forward and shouted "BANG!" with his fingers in a gun shape.

Naruto gasped elaborately and his hands flew to where he was 'shot'.

Then the brunette shouted "AH-_HA_!" and jabbed—a poke, really—Naruto in the chest with his little singer-sword.

"Oh, you got me!" Naruto groaned as he pretended to cover up his 'wounds'.

The little boys cheered in victory as Naruto stood up. He gave the mother a wink to let her know that it was all fun and games, which she replied with a warm, albeit anxious, smile.

"Congratulations, men," Naruto said as he stood to his full height. The boys beamed at being called 'men' by Naruto. Then Naruto said in his mock-deep-warrior voice, "You have won the duel, but never forget what you have learned through battle. If you point at someone, they might think that you have challenged them to a duel, and that is _not_ what manly men like us do, right?"

"Right!" the little boys chirped as they frowned 'seriously' and puffed out their tiny chests.

Naruto smiled and ruffled their hair and said, "And for the record, double teaming an opponent is cheating."

The little boys let out some exclamations, but Naruto wasn't paying attention. With a final nod and a smile for the mother, Naruto waved at the three and continued on his way.

The rest of his walk to Ichiraku Ramen went by without any incident or anything special. Naruto would occasionally recognize a spot of two, but did not dwell on them. His mind was already focused on ramen.

He had of course, experimented with many different types of ramen since leaving Konoha, and had even driven all around Suna in search for a ramen shop. He found one, but it was nowhere near as majestic or magical as Ichiraku, so he rarely went there. Naruto had even tried to make his own ramen, and still would on occasion, but Teuchi never passed down his wisdom to Naruto so his own ramen just did not compare.

Naruto's mouth was watering, so he quickened his pace. He needed ramen IMMEDIATELY!

When he arrived at the parking lot, he saw that it was nearly as deserted as he had left it and practically cheered. That meant more ramen for him!

It was like no time had passed from when he was a teenager, and Naruto ran the rest of the way to the door and slammed them both open and shouted, "OLD MAN! WHERE'S MY RAMEN?"

There _might_ have been a startled response, maybe even a shout or two, but Naruto was not paying attention. He power walked to the little bar counter that was next to the kitchen a little ways from the booths for large parties of customers and immediately sat down in his spot.

He looked up expectantly, for in the past this was the daily ritual. Naruto would use his affectionate name for Teuchi, 'Old Man', and then demand for his ramen which Teuchi or Ayame would have ready for him. But there was no ramen waiting on front of him this time, so Naruto was confused.

When he looked up, he saw Old Man Teuchi gaping at him as if he had seen a ghost.

Naruto squinted his eyes and tilted his head to the side, "Old Man? What's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

Teuchi just kept gaping at him, and Naruto just kept squinting back at him in confusion. What was taking so long? Naruto wanted his ramen!

Then the door to the back kitchen opened and a woman with brunette hair leaned out and said, "Dad? Did I hear right and there's a customer?"

Teuchi did not reply, so Naruto took it upon himself to address the woman who he identified as Ayame and said, "Yeah, you heard right Big Sis, but Old Man here just saw a ghost or something and froze up!"

Ayame turned to him and gasped, "Naruto?! Is-is that really you?"

Naruto squinted at her too, and said, "Yea, yea, yea. It's me, yoo-hoo! Hooray! Now can I get some RAMEN?" he pleaded, holding his hands up in a prayer gesture.

Teuchi suddenly burst out in laughter, loud, boisterous laughter straight from his hearty stomach and said, "You really haven't changed, have you?"

Naruto shook his head frantically and said, "Nope! I'm still HUNGRY! So food! Food! Food!"

Teuchi laughed again and asked, "Well, what can I get ya m'boy?"

"RAMEEEEEEN!" Naruto exclaimed, raising his fists in the air.

Ayame had joined her father in laughter and said, "We'll get you your regular then."

Naruto nodded eagerly and started to do his little happy dance in his stool. It had been too long since he had REAL ramen! Other ramen were just imitators! This was heaven.

While Old Man Teuchi was working his magic, Ayame turned to talk with Naruto and said, "Wow! My little man grew up!"

Naruto let loose a laugh and said, "Does that mean I have a shot with ya?"

Ayame giggled and shook her head no.

Naruto pretended to pout, "Aw, but what about our promise from when we were younger? You said that when I was older you would be my wife!"

Ayame shook her head with a smile again and said, "ah-ah-ah," while shaking her finger at him, "if you remember _correctly_, YOU said that when you were my age, then we could be a family with you as the daddy and I would be the mommy."

Naruto blushed a little, "So that's how that went down? I always remembered that differently then."

Ayame laughed and said, "You sure did, because I never agreed to your agreement."

"Plus, you kept saying when you reached Ayame's age like she would never grow up," Teuchi chimed in.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "I think I prefer the way I remember it, thanks."

"You go on believing that," Ayame said with a wink.

Naruto was going to answer, but then Teuchi placed the bowl of pure heaven on earth in front of him, making Naruto exclaim, "RAMEN!" and he dug right in.

He finished it with record time and sighed with relief and satisfaction from getting to eat REAL ramen after so long, "Ahhhhhh, sooooooooooo good!"

Ayame and Teuchi laughed again with smiles on their faces.

"More, pleeeeease?" Naruto begged.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi promised as he turned around to make more magic.

"Oh, Naruto. You're just as I remember," Ayame said with a wistful smile on her face.

Naruto didn't answer, or more _couldn't_ answer. He had made it a point to try to block out anything and everything about Konoha over the years in Suna, and had tried to erase the Naruto Namikaze that had lived in this town. And he knew that if Sakura, or even the three back in the coffee shop, had said that he was just like they remembered then he would get extremely offended since he had tried so hard to distance himself from the person he once was; but oddly enough, if did not bother him that Ayame had said it. In fact, it was comforting in a way, because these two were the closest thing he had to an extended family, asides from Sasuke and one of his old teachers in high school.

Then Ayame's wistful smile fell a little as she concentrated on something on Naruto's face, making him wonder if he had been particularly messy and he had missed a noodle or something on his face.

She reached forward and held her hand up to Naruto's cheek, stroking the scars there gently with her thumb, and said, "But I don't remember these."

Naruto leaned away and said, "Pretty manly, huh?" with a wink.

"Where did you—" Ayame started to say but was cut off.

"But alas, my fair maiden, I fear that our love can never be true," Naruto said in his best theatrical voice.

"What?" Ayame asked, clearly confused but amused at the change of topic.

"Though my heart does long for you, my body and mind are at a loss for what to do, as I swingith not that way," Naruto declared while facing away as if in emotional pain.

Ayame laughed again and asked, "So, Sir Knight, what does that mean in English?"

"It means I'm Queer, I'm here, so get used to it," Naruto said with another wink.

Ayame smiled, and said, "Yeah, I kinda thought so."

"Whoa, really?" Naruto asked, surprised. He knew that there were rumors about him in school, but he didn't think that they had reached the ramen shop!

Teuchi turned around and chimed in his two cents, "Oh, we knew around the time you and your little friends started to hit puberty. Most of the other boys would talk about girls and curves, but you never did."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck as he blushed, "I never knew you guys were listening in on us."

Ayame shook her head somewhat incredulously, "Well, you guys weren't exactly _quiet_ about it. Why do you think I never waited on them?"

Naruto squinted a little and said, "Uh, because I needed the experience as a Waiter?"

Ayame laughed again, joined by Teuchi, and said, "Good god no! I just didn't want to be near any raging hormonal boy!"

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows a little in confusion and said, "Then—"

"Oh, you were fine," Ayame said as Teuchi nodded, "not only did we suspect that you were gay, but you were also like a little brother to me!"

Naruto pretended to pout, though on the inside he was beaming because that meant that at least two people in Konoha accepted him for who he truly was, and said in a mock-somber tone, "You know, if I was straight, then that would have been a huge blow to my ego."

"What do you mean?" Ayame asked, a little confused.

"You just little-gay-brother-zoned me!" Naruto pretended to whine.

That certainly made Ayame and Teuchi laugh again, but Naruto didn't care, for Teuchi had just placed another bowl of heavenly ramen in front of him, making him cheer again.

He decided that this time he would savor the flavor, and took his time eating the heavenly ramen. But before he did, he remembered to demand another bowl, which Teuchi had already expected and was already working on by the time Naruto had spoken.

Naruto could feel that he was smiling even wider with each bite, and it was not just because his stomach was crying with joy for being reunited with its lover. He felt truly happy because he knew that there was at least one place in all of Konoha that he would always be welcomed.

He was so busy cherishing the moment and the ramen that he did not notice the bell chime indicating that someone had just entered the ramen shop.

It was not until that person sat down next to him did he realize that he indeed had company.

"Hello, Naruto," Sakura greeted, sending him a sidelong glance.

Naruto paused mid-slurp, then greeted, "Sakura," in return.

Ayame must have noticed the instant tension, because she stopped leaning on the counter and asked, "Would you like to order?" in her normal business tone.

"Uh, just a water, thanks," Sakura answered in return.

Naruto finished slurping the rest of his broth in silence, dreading whatever Sakura had come to say. From past experience within the last day and a half, she rarely had anything good to say whenever they were alone together.

"Aw, c'mon, Sakura," Naruto tried to say in a light hearted tone, "one little bowl of ramen won't hurt ya."

"No, thank you," Sakura said towards Ayame and Teuchi's backs in a very polite tone, then explained to Naruto, "I'm on a diet."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked. Sakura was skinny enough, hell, there was barely any meat to her bones and there weren't a lot of curves to brag about, so why feel the need to diet?

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto and said, "It's a woman thing."

Naruto stared at her in confusion, because that explanation made absolutely NO sense at all. So he turned to Ayame and asked, "A woman thing?"

"Oh, hush, you wouldn't understand," Ayame said with a wave of her finger, though her demeanor probably was saying something like 'don't bring me into this'.

Naruto shrugged to himself and said, "Whatever. Hey, Old Man! Gimme another one!"

"Comin' right up!" Teuchi replied, just like the old days.

The silence that Naruto and Sakura sat in was tense.

Then, Sakura broke the silence by saying, "I knew it was only a matter of time before you came here."

"Mm," Naruto grunted, not knowing what to say.

Silence reigned again with awkward as its little minion.

Ayame handed Sakura a water bottle from the back kitchen, then scurried back to avoid the heavy tension, but Naruto was sure that she was just behind the door listening in on their conversation that was not happening at the moment.

So, as to not disappoint Ayame, Naruto plucked up his courage and asked, "So did you ask the bastard about the real reason why I left?"

Sakura jumped a little and continued to play with her water bottle as she said, "Don't call him that," but without any real emotion behind it and more of an avoidance of the question.

"Well?" Naruto asked, wanting to get the conversation over with so he could enjoy his meal.

Sakura shook her head, making Naruto want to roll his eyes. Of _course_ she didn't. She was probably perfectly happy living in Sakura land, blissfully unaware of the truth.

"I…I tried, but…Sasuke, he…he wouldn't talk about it…" Sakura stuttered.

At that moment, Naruto felt pity for the girl beside him. Sasuke had probably given her the Uchiha Glare and either stormed out or something just as intimidating to scare her this much. Naruto was always different, and would take these gestures as challenges and thus did not react with the normal fear that others did, but he _did_ know—from firsthand observation and secondhand descriptions—that apparently Sasuke could be quite terrifying.

Naruto sighed, and tried to make things a little easier for Sakura, "Yea, the bastard is like that. He's like a clam inside a safety deposit box in one of the most secured vaults ever."

"What?" Sakura asked, sounding confused by his analogy.

"He keeps his secrets," Naruto translated for her.

"Oh," she said in return.

"Well," Naruto said in a forced cheery tone, "how much _do_ you know about why I left?"

Sakura shook her head down at her water again, looking a little vulnerable, and said in just above a whisper, "I don't know…"

"I'm sorry? What?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know much," Sakura clarified in a louder voice, "Lee only told me that you and Sasuke had argued."

"Fucking Lee," Naruto grumbled. Where did that man keep getting all of his information? To Naruto's knowledge, he had only told two people—three if he was counting Gaara—a dumbed down version of what had happened, and those people definitely were not Lee; and he trusted them to not talk about the real reason why he left, and he KNEW that the bastard definitely wouldn't tell Lee… It was a mystery…

Sakura nodded in agreement about their gossiping friend and finally took a sip of her water.

Naruto waited until she had put the drink down before correcting her, "You are kind of correct, but only partially, because I wouldn't call what the bastard and I had as a mere 'argument'," Naruto used his hands for air quotation marks.

Sakura looked at him quizzically.

Naruto met her gaze and clarified, "It was a fight. Words were spoken, yes, but mostly we just beat on each other, but worse than usual because it was for real that time."

Sakura's eyes grew horrified; no doubt remembering the few times she had witnessed he and Sasuke fight and trying to process how anything could be worse because the two would wail on each other like there was no tomorrow.

"Well, I don't know how to describe it really—" Naruto started to say.

"—please don't—" Sakura whispered as she shook her head slightly.

"—because normally it'd be on equal grounds," Naruto continued as if Sakura hadn't said anything, "but this time I didn't…COULDN'T fight back."

Sakura shook her head again, but couldn't seem to break eye contact with Naruto.

Naruto forced himself to give a wry smile and pointed to his cheeks, saying, "It was Sasuke who gave me these scars that day."

Sakura gasped and immediately teared up a little and covered her mouth with her hand.

Teuchi, who obviously overheard, gasped too and asked, "Good gracious, Naruto. Didn't you press charges?"

Although all Naruto wanted to do was cover up his cheeks with all the attention they were getting and run away to his tree, he forced himself to laugh and smile, "What? Against an Uchiha? I thought you were smarter than that, Old Man."

"You should still press charges!" Teuchi insisted.

Naruto shook his head, still smiling, and said, "No can do, Statute of Limitations, remember? It's been ten years."

"I don't know much about that law, but are you sure that that would apply to this?" Teuchi demanded to know.

Naruto shrugged lightheartedly and said, "I don't know either, and frankly, I don't care. It happened, and I left town and became someone I'm proud to be. Did you know I'm an author now?"

Teuchi frowned, and said, "No, I didn't. But—"

"Yea! Published and everything! I already have four books out and am making a real career for myself!" Naruto pumped as much energy and excitement as he could into the conversation. It was a defense mechanism, according to Gaara's siblings Temari and Kankuro. But Naruto didn't care about that. It was working, and that was what he was focusing on.

"Naruto…" Sakura whispered, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

Naruto sighed, and wiped a tear away for her, trying to avoid all that makeup gunk on her face, and said, "I really was serious all those times when I told you I don't plan on staying here."

Sakura grabbed his hand, seemingly at a loss for words.

Then, after a moment, she said, "But…but we _need_ you here! You-you're the _only_ one who can…who can…"

"Sakura," Naruto said with a smile, but in a tired tone, "you're making this sound like a soap opera."

"I'm serious!" Sakura insisted.

"So am I," Naruto shot back immediately.

Sakura paused, then asked, "Then why? Why did you come back if you are so against it?"

Naruto paused as well, because he could identify just how important this question was, then answered carefully, "I came back for the sake of my old friendship with Sasuke. Not the guy who did this," he gestured towards his cheeks with a forced smile, "but the guy who was like my brother. I'd move mountains and swim through the artic nude for that guy and all that dramatic shit. I would always be there for my old friend."

Sakura's expression softened into a grin when she heard that.

Naruto heaved a great sigh and said, "Unfortunately, my old friend no longer exists, much like how Naruto Namikaze no longer exists. So I'll be on the first plane out of here."

Sakura was silent for a long while.

During that time, Teuchi took the opportunity to give Naruto the bowl of ramen he had been preparing to busy himself during the tense, personal conversation. It had loads of extra toppings on it! Naruto accepted it and mouthed a silent apology for the awkward tension that did not even have any sexual undertones for Ayame to enjoy.

As soon as Naruto had finished his heavenly ramen, Sakura asked, "Do you know where you are staying for the night?"

Naruto squinted at her, "What? It's barely after four! I figured I'd just find a hotel close to the airport."

Sakura gave him a sympathetic look and said, "That isn't right."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed, "You mean there _aren't_ hotels near the airport? Wow, that's gotta suck for tourists!"

Sakura gave half a smile and explained, "No, you idiot. I meant that it isn't right that you are just going to find a hotel. You are one of my best friends, so you deserve better."

"Uhhhh, okay?" said Naruto, confused, since he was totally planning on rewarding himself for surviving Konoha by treating himself to a swanky hotel room. He was gay, so he could get away with going to the spa and everything.

Sakura's half smile grew into a whole smile as she offered, "You can stay with me instead."

Naruto shook his head frantically, "That's sweet and all, but I am _not_ sleeping under the same roof as the bastard! He'd kill me in my sleep!"

Sakura shook her head also and said, "Not at Sasuke's, but my own place. I still technically have my apartment since I only recently started living in Uchiha Manor. You can stay there, and I'll even let you stay there alone, if you want."

Naruto smiled at his old friend, truly appreciating the sentiment; though he secretly still wanted to jump on top of a fancy hotel bed.

"You don't have to decide now, but how about after dinner?" Sakura asked.

"Dinner?" Naruto repeated.

"Yeah, with a bunch of friends. It's on the business card I gave you?" Sakura reached into her purse to pull out a duplicate.

Naruto groaned to himself. He had forgotten that he had agreed to—by not denying right away—to go to dinner; apparently with MORE people from Konoha. Just great.

* * *

**And that was the chapter!**

**I'm just glad to be at home. The last week of school was definitely the most draining week of my life. Not with school work, oh no. School work I could handle. Apparently, what I **_**can't**_** handle is all this stress that has triggered my insomnia to new levels. Oh joy.**

**Anyways, thanks to those who favorite/alert. And an extra special thanks to those who review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**I don't particularly like writing scenes with large numbers of people in it because while I want to focus on the plot and stuff, I don't want to just include characters and then ignore them. Then I feel the need to make them say more stuff, because I don't want the more silent-type characters to only get one line in there that would basically just be a character-gag, like Lee shouting out 'youthful' all the time. I avoid that, since in the show he doesn't say 'youth' as much as people seem to think he does. But maybe I am just over-analyzing things. But hey, it's what I do.**

**Onwards with the chapter.**

* * *

"Isn't it a bit early to be eating dinner?" Naruto asked Sakura as she started to pack away the water bottle Ayame had given her into her large, pink purse.

"What?" Sakura asked, sparing him a glance.

"It's about," Naruto checked his watch that Gaara had given him as a 'practical' gift on his wrist, "four ten."

"Really? It is?" Sakura asked, grabbing Naruto's wrist to check the watch herself.

"Uhhh, yea," Naruto confirmed.

"Oh, well…" Sakura let go of his wrist and started digging through her purse.

"And don't people have normal jobs? Like nine-to-five jobs?" Naruto asked. If he was being honest, he did not care about the convenience of others' jobs, but rather simply wanted to stall. Even though he was in a considerably better mood than before—who wouldn't when surrounded by _ramen_?—he was still not in the mood to talk with his 'friends' from Konoha.

"Well…" Sakura mumble as she continued to dig through her purse

"Exactly! So let's just stay here until the appropriate dinner time," Naruto suggested gesturing towards the counter.

Sakura nodded distractedly. Then her face lit up as she pulled something out of her purse…her phone. Of course.

Naruto silently raised his eyebrows at that. Yet again, there he was: something the woman had not seen for ten years, and someone who she had just had a very emotional conversation with, and she was choosing to be distracted by her phone.

Sometimes Naruto really hated the age of technology and what it has done with society.

But then again, he was not in the mood to have any more _meaningful_ conversations, especially if they involved the bastard; which despite her good intentions, seemed to be all that Sakura wanted to talk about.

"Alright," Sakura announced in a business type tone, "I'm asking Ino to ask around for when a good time for everyone would be. I'm also making sure that she invites everyone."

Naruto nodded, secretly asking himself why she didn't do so earlier, but assuming silently that she was probably preoccupied with the bastard's non-answer to why Naruto really left Konoha.

While Sakura tapped away at her phone's screen—something Naruto could never get the hang of—Naruto ordered another bowl of ramen.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi answered, as usual.

Naruto motioned for the old man to come closer. When he did, Naruto whispered that Teuchi could tell his daughter that it was safe to come out again.

Teuchi nodded and while he waited for Naruto's noodles to simmer he went to the back.

Moments later, he returned with Ayame in tow.

"So, Big Sis, has the Old Man shared his ramen-y secrets with ya yet?" Naruto asked with a smile, leaning his chin on his hand.

"Actually, he started to not too long ago!" Ayame exclaimed with a smile.

"That's great!" Naruto replied.

"But he still hasn't shared the House Special with me yet," Ayame told Naruto while she glared at her father's back.

Teuchi turned around and said, "That's because that secret stays with me until I retire!" Then he turned around again to tend to the ramen.

Ayame rolled her eyes, and Naruto beckoned her to lean closer, like he did with Teuchi moments earlier.

When she did, Naruto asked in a whisper, "Yea, but you've been sneaking around and pretty much know it by now, right?"

Ayame's expression broke out into a wide smile as she silently gestured for Naruto to stay quiet.

The both of them suppressed their giggles; both reminiscing on how they would secretly search for recipe books and try to discreetly watch Teuchi work his ramen magic.

"What are you too whispering about over here?" Teuchi asked as he placed Naruto's bowl of ramen in front of him.

"Nothing!" Ayame and Naruto chimed together immediately.

"Hmph, and I'm the new mayor of Konoha," Teuchi snorted as he shook his head at the two of them.

"Alright, Old Man! I always knew you could do it!" Naruto exclaimed as he waved his chopsticks in the air before digging into his food.

Ayame laughed as Teuchi snorted again, but this time in laughter as well.

There was a brief silence as Naruto slurped up his noodles and Sakura was tapping away at her phone. They heard the door jingle and Ayame excused herself to serve the customer.

True to his addictive nature, Naruto finished quickly and exclaimed, "Another!" He was tempted to throw the bowl to the ground as Thor did with his coffee cup in the movie, but held himself back as _he_ would probably end up being the one to clean it up.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi replied, just like always.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" Sakura asked, glancing up at him from her phone, "Save some room for dinner," she playfully scolded with a smile on her face.

Naruto smiled in return to his friend and explained, "But Sakuraaaaa! This is the FIRST time in AAAAAGES that I can have REAL ramen!"

Sakura's green eyes widened immediately as she exclaimed, "You haven't eaten ramen since you left?"

"What?" Naruto gasped, "No! How could you even say that?"

Teuchi furrowed his brow and said in a grave voice, "If that was the case, then things must have gotten very bad."

"What's gone bad?" Ayame asked, as she returned to them, then she said, "One small owl of miso ramen, and we're waiting for someone soon."

Teuchi ignored the order and said to his daughter, "Naruto hasn't eaten ramen since he left Konoha."

"What?!" Ayame gasped with horror. Then she spun around and threw her arms around Naruto, "Oh, Naruto! I had no idea things had gotten that bad!"

"No, I really—" Naruto tried to protest, but was cut off by Sakura hugging the other side of him.

"I had no idea!" Sakura exclaimed, holding him tighter.

"Everything is on the house," Teuchi informed him in a grave tone.

"I appreciate it but—" Naruto tried to say, but was cut off again.

"I insist," Teuchi told him in tone that made things final.

Ayame squeezed him harder as she nodded against him.

"I've eaten ramen!" Naruto exclaimed, trying to make sense of things again.

"And it must have tasted so good after all these years," Sakura agreed with him as she squeezed him again in comfort.

"Well, it did—" Naruto agreed, but was cut off again. He was starting to wonder if he should even bother talking in the first place.

"We'll make some more! Right away!" Ayame promised as she let go of Naruto.

Naruto grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"Naruto?" Ayame asked, probably thinking that he needed more comfort or whatever girls assumed.

"I _did_ eat ramen in Suna, like multiple times a week!" Naruto insisted, congratulating himself on being able to successfully finish a sentence.

"But you said—" Teuchi started to say, but this time NARUTO cut him off.

"You! You guys said! And you guys assumed! _I_ never said anything about not eating ramen!" Naruto announced.

"But didn't you say you hadn't had ramen in years?" Sakura asked, still not letting go of Naruto while she 'comforted' him through hugs.

"_REAL_ RAMEN!" Naruto reminded her with urgency.

"Real ramen? But isn't _all_ ramen 'real' ramen?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Oh, Sakura, Sakura, Sakura," Naruto shook his head at his friend's lack of knowledge. He let go of Ayame and placed his hands on Sakura's shoulders to pull her away at arm's length. "There are many types of ramen, but only Ichiraku Ramen is REAL ramen. This ramen is downright heavenly."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion, but she nodded anyways.

Naruto let go of her shoulders and turned back to Teuchi with a smile and asked, "So is my ramen still on the house?"

Teuchi laughed and agreed to do so before he went back to finishing up Naruto's ramen. When the bowl was placed in front of him not too long after, Naruto reminded the restaurant owner and his daughter about the other customer's order, making them jump a bit and immediately work again.

Naruto finished his ramen quickly again, and slurped up the last of the broth.

That caught Sakura's attention away from her phone and she turned to him.

"Seriously, Naruto. _Try_ to save some room for dinner?" she suggested, giving the empty bowl a pointed look.

Naruto grinned at her and said, "Well, I don't really plan on eating much at dinner." He motioned for another bowl of ramen and Teuchi nodded.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

He _could_ have told her the truth, that being around so many people he had been avoiding for so long who never bothered to try to contact him would more than likely ruin his appetite so he fully planned on getting drunk in compensation for a ruined weekend. But he didn't. Naruto didn't want to have a conversation about it where Sakura would insist that he was just being paranoid or whatever.

So instead he said, "I already ate a few bowls before you got here, so even if I stopped now, I wouldn't be hungry until late. Like, nine or ten late."

Sakura's rose in a slightly amused disbelief and asked, "So you're sure about that?"

"Yes. Very sure, "Naruto confirmed with a nod," that's part of the reason my roommate won't let me eat ramen for lunch."

"Whoa! Someone dares keep you away from ramen?" Ayame joked with a wide smile on her face.

Naruto turned to her and said, "I know right? He said that I have an addiction!"

Ayame giggled, "Well, he _does_ have a point! You _were_ in here, like, every day after school!"

Naruto pretended to be offended and stuck his nose in the air, "I was not in here EVERY day."

"Just about," Teuchi chimed in, turning around with a steaming bowl of ramen in his hands.

"Whatever," Naruto laughed, leaning as far back as he could in his stool, "He's just being unfair since I _don't_ have an addiction.

Teuchi and Ayame shared a look, and Naruto was instantly filled with dread.

Family members should never share looks. That usually meant evil.

Teuchi then handed NARUTO'S ramen over to Ayame, then said, "Take that to another customer, on the house."

"WHAT?" Naruto exclaimed, falling off his stool. "WHAT?" he repeated, "OLD MAN! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

Teuchi shrugged, "I see no reason why not. All your food is on the house, so you aren't paying to it."

"BUT! BUT! BUT!" Naruto desperately tried to form a sentence, but couldn't in his desperation to keep HIS ramen away from unworthy others.

"Why so desperate?" Ayame asked with a giggle.

Evil. This family was evil.

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!" Naruto conceded, "My roommate has a point. Maybe I AM a _little _addicted..."

Sakura laughed along with Ayame and Teuchi, "A '_little_'?" she repeated somewhat incredulously.

Naruto didn't reply in favor of downing his ramen as fast as he could as soon as Ayame gave him the bowl of delicious ramen. He silently apologized to his stomach, and promised that he would never let the evil family torture it like that ever again.

He finished eating his ramen, then asked, "Hey, Old Man, is there anything I can do in the back?"

Caught off guard, Teuchi asked, "What?"

"I feel bad about not paying for my meal, so I'm gunna do physical labor and all that jazzy stuff. Kinda like when I was a kid," Naruto explained.

Teuchi looked a little hesitant, but then Ayame chimed in, "Aw c'mon, Dad. You know how much Naruto hates pity."

Naruto nodded along with her and said, "Thanks!" as he jumped over the counter.

Teuchi laughed and said, "Alright, alright. There are some dishes in the back you can get started on."

Naruto saluted him and headed to the back.

When he got to the dishes station, Naruto grabbed an apron. He paused for a moment, because he saw his old apron that had the neck piece tied a few times to accommodate his short stature as a child. He smiled with nostalgia and in marvel at how Teuchi did not bother to throw it out, and then got started on his appointed job.

After he finished a few dishes in the pile, he realized that something was missing, and saw the radio that he and Ayame had set near the station years ago. With another smile, he switched it on and started humming along with the tunes while he worked.

While he worked, Naruto sort of tuned out. He had done the dishes so many times at Ichiraku that it had become muscle memory.

Before he truly realized it, he had finished all of the dishes.

Nodding to himself about his accomplishment, Naruto took off the apron and placed it back on its hook. Then he turned off the radio and walked out the door.

"Old Man, you better make me another bowl!" Naruto demanded, though mostly for nostalgia's sake since that was what he would announce every time he had finished his work as a child.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi replied, like always.

Naruto smiled and jumped back over the counter to sit next to Sakura again, who was yet again tapping her fingers on her phone's screen.

"Hey, babe, come here often?" Naruto asked in a low voice, bumping her tiny shoulder with his own.

"Last bowl," Sakura said off-handedly.

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked. He was fully prepared to either defend himself—physically if needed—for the playful pickup line, or continue to pretend to flirt with her. Sakura not acknowledging it was not part of his arsenal.

Sakura looked up at him and repeated, "Last bowl. After this, we are going to dinner."

"What? But I thought it was too early!" Naruto defended, trying to keep himself from sounding panicked or desperate.

Sakura lifted her eyebrows, then gestured with her head for Naruto to check his watch.

When he did, Naruto exclaimed, "Holy shit! It's after six!"

"Yes it is," Teuchi agreed as he placed Naruto's bowl of ramen in front of him.

Naruto said his thanks, then ate his ramen. This time, like with his second bowl, he savored the flavor since it would probably be the last bowl of heavenly, _perfect_ ramen that he would ever have.

When he finished, he could not resist moaning in ecstasy and exclaiming, "So good!"

Sakura nodded, then asked, "So you ready to go?"

Naruto nodded, somewhat solemnly. He did not particularly want to leave Ichiraku Ramen and the safety it provided from the rest of Konoha, but he agreed to go to dinner. When Naruto Uzumaki agrees to something, he makes sure that he does it.

He stood up, but before he could leave, Ayame pulled him into a hug.

"It was nice seeing you again!" she said with a squeeze.

"Don't forget to come back sometime soon," Teuchi told Naruto.

Naruto returned the hug, then nodded to Teuchi and clapped him on the shoulder; a gesture that was reciprocated. He did not say anything aloud though, he didn't have it in him to lie to Teuchi or Ayame and tell them that he'd be back soon, since he fully planned on leaving the next day.

"Bye Old Man, bye Big Sis, it was awesome seeing you guys again," Naruto said with a wave.

"Aw, bye! We love you!" Ayame called after him. Naruto smiled at her and blew her a kiss. Then he turned around and left the restaurant.

As soon as they were out of the restaurant, Sakura asked, "Hey, do you still have my keys?"

Naruto nodded and dug into his pocket. Once he had the keys in his hands, he tossed it to Sakura. She had to lean forwards a bit and rush forward, but she caught it.

He waited by the side of the car for her to unlock the doors. When she did, he immediately opened the door and sat down, and buckled up, without a word.

Sakura did not seem to notice, and as soon as she sat down she started rattling off details about her dinner plan.

Naruto listened without complaint, but with a growing stomach ache. It was those damn stomach pterodactyls again, he was very trepid.

Apparently, 'everyone' was going to be there. Naruto did not need to ask who 'everyone' was, but was secretly wishing with all his might that 'everyone' did _not_ include a certain bastard.

He also learned that they would be eating at Chouji's restaurant, or at least the restaurant that Chouji worked out as Sakura had clarified. Apparently he was a chef now, but tonight he was off as he switched shifts to work in the afternoon so he could be free tonight.

They drove further into town, and Naruto's stomach pterodactyls were not happy about that. He needed to calm them down, so he also fervently wished that the restaurant had its alcohol license without a drink limit.

Then Naruto asked Sakura what kind of restaurant it was that they were eating at. She answered that it was a barbeque restaurant. Naruto nodded, thinking that he knew which one she was talking about, since Chouji had a special love for one barbeque restaurant—possibly the _only_ barbeque restaurant—in town.

Sure enough, when Sakura made to turn into a parking lot, Naruto saw that his suspicions were confirmed. For that, he was thankful. This restaurant had personal booths as well as regular tables for those customers who preferred to grill their own strips of meat, which he remembered that 'everyone' was fond of. Even though he was forced into seeing 'everyone', he was thankful that at least he would not have to be exposed to all of the people of Konoha.

Sakura parked the car, and the two of them got out and started walking towards the restaurant.

"By the way, we are some of the last ones here," Sakura announced to him.

"We are?" Naruto asked.

Sakura nodded and held her phone up a bit and answered, "Yeah, your last bowl of ramen took longer than expected and Ino said that practically everyone is there."

Naruto nodded, feeling conflicted. On one hand, he would not have to wait for people to show up individually. On the other hand, he would have to deal with the combined impact of 'everyone' seeing him at once.

He decided to not focus on that, even though the effort was useless.

Naruto walked ahead of Sakura a bit and held the door open for her. She thanked him, then she went up to the hostess and politely told her what party they belonged to. The hostess told them to follow her as she led them through the restaurant.

As they walked, Naruto could feel his heart rate quicken. It was not as bad as when he was heading to his doom—er, to Uchiha Manor, but it was still a little on the epic side. Blood pumping through his ears and everything.

Then he heard, "NARUTO!"

Looking up, he saw Lee leaning out of a booth down the hallway, waving wildly at them.

Sakura giggled with the hostess and said to her, "I think we can find our way from here."

The hostess agreed and walked back to her post or whatever. She betrayed Naruto, and he trusted her so…

"NARUTO! SAKURA! COME! SIT WITH US!" Lee called out again.

Naruto took a deep breath and plastered a large smile on his face.

"Lee! How are ya, you lazy sucker?" Naruto called out, walking forwards.

"I am not lazy!" Lee defended himself, somehow taking Naruto's teasing seriously with a smile on his face.

Suddenly a woman laughed, "He's just teasing you, Lee!" TenTen told him, poking her head out of the booth by leaning against Lee who was holding her up.

Lee laughed as well, "Oh yes, of course!"

"Umph!" TenTen grunted as someone else leaned on her to see outside the booth.

"What are you still doing out there? C'mon and be social with ALL of your friends!" Ino demanded.

Naruto mentally prepared himself, then he walked in front of the booth for all to see him and said, "Hey guys! Wassup?"

"NARUTO!"

Several people called out his name. Before he could fully identify just who 'everyone' was, he felt himself being pulled into the booth area.

"Sit! Sit!" said the person grabbing his arm and pulled towards the middle of the table. Naruto looked over and saw that it was one of his closest friends in high school, Kiba.

"Hey! There's only one seat over there!" Naruto heard Sakura complain.

He looked over to where he was being dragged, and indeed only saw one seat available.

"That's because we drew straws to see who would sit next to Naruto," he heard Ino explain, "And you weren't here so you didn't win."

"That's because I was picking him up, Ino-Pig!" Sakura retorted.

"Well _excuse_ me, Big-Forehead!" Ino said loudly as she stood up.

Then an arm shot up and pulled Ino back down. It turned out to be Shikamaru's arm, and he said, "Would you cut that out? That rivalry bit got old years ago."

"Shuddup, Shikamaru," Sakura and Ino demanded in unison.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that Naruto couldn't hear, but made Chouji, who was sitting next to the lazy man, snicker a little.

Naruto felt himself being pulled down, so he obeyed Kiba and sat down in his seat. He looked to his sides and saw that he was sitting between Kiba and Hinata. He offered her a smile of greeting, and she blushed but eventually smiled back.

He looked over and saw Sakura seating herself next to Ino and the two seemed to once again be best friends. Naruto would never understand women.

"So, Naruto! How are ya, man?" Kiba asked in a very loud voice, slinging his arm over Naruto's shoulder, much like he used to when they were teenagers.

Naruto smiled widely and rather than answering, said, "Your breath still reeks of dog, Kiba."

"Screw you!" Kiba retorted and in instant revenge, breathed heavily against Naruto, forcing him to smell his breath.

"Ew! Gross, Kiba!" Ino and Sakura shouted, pointing accusing fingers at him. TenTen was nodding along with them, though she was not as vocal about it.

But Naruto had held his own breath, then said, "Still practicing making out with that dog of yours, eh?"

"I don't need to practice with Akamaru!" Kiba declared, "I'm dating Hinata."

Naruto immediately spun around to face Hinata to see whether or not it was true. When she nodded—with a blush—Naruto leaned over and gave her a hug, "Congratulations."

"Hey! What about me? And stop hitting on my girlfriend!" Kiba demanded, pulling Naruto off of Hinata.

"Kiba, I have only one thing to say to you," Naruto said as he placed a hand on one of Kiba's shoulders. He took a deep breath as if he was going to say something wise and full of romantic advice, then he said, "If you ever hurt even a hair on Hinata's gorgeous head, I will not only castrate you but I'll have Akamaru neutered."

"Whoa, harsh, man," TenTen commented while Kiba backed away from Naruto quickly and protected his prized jewels with his hands.

Naruto shrugged and said, "What can I say? Hinata's my favorite little duckling." He made a duck face at her to show that he was teasing.

"Hey!" Sakura and Ino shouted.

Already prepared, Naruto immediately turned to face them with a somber look, "You lovely ladies used to be my little ducklings, but alas, you grew up into beautiful swans, and I knew in that moment that you are too perfect for me."

Ino and Sakura seemed appeased, while TenTen was torn between giving them disbelieving looks and a congratulating smirk to Naruto; which he winked in return.

"Nice save," Kiba whispered to him.

"I know, right? I'm glad that I actually paid attention all those times my mentor got caught flirting with other women!" Naruto whispered back. He did not mention, though, that at the time he was simply disgusted with the man's womanizing habits.

"Indeed," a deep voice whispered.

"WHOA!" Naruto exclaimed, causing people to jump, "Shit, Shino! I didn't see you there!"

It was hard to gage Shino's reaction, who was sitting next to Kiba, then Shino asked, "Why? Am I not recognizable after all these years apart?"

"I couldn't recognize you even if I saw you _an hour ago_! You're wearing a dark hoodie and sunglasses in the CORNER of the booth!" Naruto defended himself.

Shino was silent, then after a moment, he hung his head low.

"Aw, c'mon, man, don't be like that…" Naruto tried to say, looking around the table for help, but no one was offering.

"Don't let it get to ya," Kiba suggested, bumping his shoulder against Naruto, "He'll come around eventually."

Naruto gave him a doubtful look, as Shino had yet to raise his head.

But then he heard Chouji ask, "So Naruto, how have you been?"

Before Naruto could say anything, Lee answered for him, "Our Naruto is an author now!"

Naruto did not have to reprimand Lee for answering for him again, because once again, Neji beat him to the punch, "He was asking _Naruto_, Lee."

Lee laughed, "Oh, yes, of course."

"You're really an author now?" Ino asked Naruto.

This time, Sakura answered for Naruto instead of Lee, "That's right! He writes romantic fantasies!"

"Wow!" Ino exclaimed, "Maybe I should read on of your books!"

"Do you think you'll get through it?" Chouji asked, "I mean, you ARE busy at the hospital and your family's flower shop."

Ino had a thoughtful look and agreed, "You're right, Chouji. But I think I could make it work, but first I'll need to know how good it is."

Before Naruto could protest that ALL of his work was better than good, Ino jabbed Shikamaru with her elbow, "Hey! Read Naruto's book and tell me whether or not it's good!" she demanded.

Shikamaru glared at her for a moment, then yawned and said offhandedly, "Haven't you ever read one of his short stories in high school? Of course it'll be good."

Naruto practically swelled at those words. Shikamaru rarely complimented anything he did not have a personal interest in, so the compliment meant a lot.

"Indeed! His work is most wondrous! I have read them many times!" Lee chimed in with a smile.

"Oh, then I'll definitely give them a read," Ino decided with a smile.

"So what's new with you?" Kiba asked Naruto.

FINALLY Naruto was allowed to answer for himself, though he refused to talk about his personal life. He felt much more comfortable talking to people in Konoha about his job; because talking about his personal life would lead to personal questions, and there was only _one_ person at the table that he felt comfortable with talking about his personal life with.

"Well," Naruto answered slowly, "I finished with my latest book not too long ago, so I'm in a lull period now and am just working out ideas for what I want to write about next."

"Yes, you mentioned this earlier," Neji commented, "And what are you going to write about next?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, "I'm still deciding on most of it, but I know it'll have to have romance."

"Ooh! Any particular reason, Naruto?" Ino asked, leaning over the table and causing Chouji to lift his plate closer to him so he could continue eating.

"Well yeah," Naruto answered, lowering his arm, "It's going to be dedicated to my assistant."

"Whoa! You have an assistant?!" Kiba exclaimed, rather loudly, causing Shikamaru to lift his head and give a half-assed glare at him before leaning against his arm.

Naruto laughed and said, "Of _course_ I have an assistant! My roommate demanded I get one since he can't keep an eye on me _all_ the time!"

"You didn't mention that you have a roommate, too!" said TenTen, clearly interested in this news.

'_Shit_', Naruto thought to himself. The conversation was heading towards dangerous territory.

"Uh, yea," Naruto cleared his throat, "We moved in together since money was tight, and after we both got better jobs it was just easier to keep living with each other. He's a mother hen at times and I keep life interesting."

"Oh, so like you and Sasuke!" Chouji asked with an ignorant smile.

Naruto felt his smile get more strained as he nodded his agreement.

Luckily, Hinata took that moment to ask, "Wh-What is your assis-assistant's n-n-name?"

Naruto gave her a genuine smile, since she had rightly put the conversation back on a safe course, "Her name is Matsuri, and she's a life saver at times."

"H-how so?" Hinata asked, with a slight stutter that Naruto remembered from their younger years.

"She and my roommate plan out my work schedule so I'm never behind, and she'll often type up the stuff I write in notebooks or any spare paper I can find so I don't have to and I'm free to write whenever my muse moves me."

Hinata nodded, and said, "I-I think th-that Shino w-wants to know what k-kind of story you are thinking abou-about."

Naruto looked over at Shino and saw that his head was fully raised and his face—at least, he _thought_ it was his face—was turned to him.

Naruto made his smile widen as he said, "Well all my good friend Shino had to do was ask!" He _thought_ Shino brightened at that, but it was impossible to tell, "Matsuri wants a story about a man with an inner evil, or demon or something, and the loneliness he faced, until he met a girl who believed in him. She also wants me to add in drama about the girl getting captured and the man fighting to bring her back and is even willing to unleash his inner evil and lose himself for her sake and the promise that even if he should die that she could live."

There was silence, then Kiba said, "Damn, dude, where do you come up with all this?"

Naruto shrugged and said, "The characters are loosely based off of people I know."

"Any of us?" Sakura asked.

Naruto could swear that he saw some people perk up at that.

But he shook his head and said, "Sorry, since it's a story for my beloved assistant, the characters are loose inserts for her and her crush."

Kiba nudged him, "So she's taken?"

"Kiba!" Naruto pretended to be horrified, "How DARE you ask me that in front of your girlfriend?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Not for me!" Kiba insisted as he lowered one hand to protect a certain sensitive area, "I meant for you!"

Naruto cocked his head to the side, "For me?" he repeated.

"Cheya for you! Or do _you_ already have a girlfriend and want a little somethin' somethin' on the side?" Kiba suggested with a wink.

He didn't hit Kiba where it counted, but he _did_ smack him in the head, "No, you Dog-Breath, I do _not_ want a little 'somethin' something'' on the side, even if I _was_ dating someone. Besides, she's not my type."

"OOOH! Then what IS your type?" Ino jumped in on the conversation.

"Yea! You never DID tell us in high school!" Sakura pointed out.

Naruto smiled widely, even though on the inside he was having a mini panic attack or something of that nature. His heart was pounding and his stomach pterodactyls were seemingly attacking his stomach as if to escape.

He had never told anybody—except for Sasuke and Hinata—that he was gay, and he trusted each of them to _not_ spill his secret; though for different reasons…_very_ different reasons.

"I'm just looking for the right One for me," Naruto answered airily.

"What? That's not an answer!" Sakura protested.

"Yeah!" Ino agreed with her, "C'mon, Naruto! Tell us about your ideal girl!"

Naruto shrugged, forcing an air of uncaring about the topic. Before either of the women could say anything else, Naruto said, "Aw, rude! You guys didn't order me anything to drink?"

"Sorry about that," Chouji apologized, "I just ordered a meal for the table and everyone has gone to the bar for their own drinks."

"There's a bar?" Naruto asked. Chouji nodded his head, and Naruto stood up without another word.

He felt a small hand on his arm, he looked down and saw that it was Hinata's hand. "I'll sh-show Naruto the wa-way."

No one seemed to have a problem with that, so the two dispatched themselves from the group with relative ease. They walked in silence, making Naruto think that his favorite little duckling had an anterior motive for showing him the way to the bar.

Sure enough, when they reached their destination, Hinata squeezed Naruto's arm again and gestured that he should take a seat. He did so without complaint, but with an amount of trepidation since he felt like he _knew_ what Hinata wanted to talk about.

When they sat, Naruto ordered himself a Heineken. He _really_ wanted to order a few shots and get buzzed immediately, but he had a feeling that this night was not going to end soon so he needed to space out his alcohol.

Hinata was polite, and waited until Naruto took that first glorious sip of a nice, cold beer.

"So wassup?" he asked, taking another swig.

"H-how are you? R-really?" she asked.

Naruto suppressed a groan. He should have known that she would go straight to the point, and he also knew that he could never lie to Hinata. Sakura, maybe, but never Hinata.

He took another long swig of his drink, before he answered, "I'm here, aren't I?"

"B-but I thought th-that you ne-never wanted to retur-turn here?" Hinata pressed on.

Naruto nodded, "That's right."

Hinata gave him a look, silently asking him why he returned, but still managing to be polite about it. It was a special talent of hers.

Naruto held back a sigh and explained, "Sakura came to Suna yesterday and begged me to come back… Apparently the bastard isn't holding up so well after Itachi's death and she just didn't know what to do, and apparently he mumbled 'idiot' in his sleep. So what else could I do?"

Hinata did not answer, she didn't need to. Naruto could tell that she understood since she was the only one who knew just how deep Naruto's feelings and loyalty to Sasuke were.

"How have you been since you left?" Hinata asked.

Naruto thought about just saying 'fine', or avoiding the question altogether, but this was Hinata. She was the only one out of his friends that bothered to track his number down and stay in touch with him. Unfortunately, their conversations were brief, and mostly over random text conversations or e-mails, and Naruto _never_ spoke about anything depressing while he was talking with Hinata, or really about his life. He had always insisted on learning about her. Hinata never complained, and never prodded over the phone, so she deserved to know the truth now.

Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, I hitchhiked up to Suna after I left to get away. You know, get lost in the city. So then, since I was only a seventeen year-old dropout, things didn't work out the way that I thought. So I was kinda, uh, homeless for a couple of months there."

Hinata made a horrified face, but Naruto smiled wider and pressed on before she could say anything, "While I was out there, I ran into this guy who I swore was ready to kill anyone in his path, and I just so happened to be squatting in his path. We crossed paths, fists, the usual, and we became best friends. I Know, I know, I sure can pick 'em, eh? It took a while, but he convinced me to stay with him and his family until I could support myself.

"I was able to get myself a few jobs and got myself an apartment, kinda like the one I had here. On one of these jobs, pizza delivery, I met someone who knew my parents! I know right?" Naruto exclaimed with a true smile with Hinata, "Well, he was a self-proclaimed 'bachelor' and a total sleaze, and he made a decent living by writing porno books. I'd hang around at his place a lot since he knew my parents and all, plus he even had pictures! But he wasn't exactly the best at keeping his deadlines, so I had to step in a few times. When he found out, he said that I had some real talent, but needed to refine it and told me to go to college.

"That friend of mine and his siblings helped me pass the high school equivalent test to get into community college, and encouraged me to start writing my own book in the meantime, and even helped with rent because I had to drop one of my three jobs to make it to my classes. Well, my mentor realized what I was doing, and talked with his editor and publishers for me, and I got published! With the money I got from the first book, I was able to quit another one of my jobs and focus more on school. Once I graduated, I became a professional author, and my friend forced me to move into an apartment with him so he could keep a better eye on me.

"After my second book was published, I was able to hire an assistant since I'm making real money now. I still live with my friend, and I love being an author in Suna," Naruto concluded for Hinata.

He had talked too much, so he started to drink his beer again.

Naruto hoped that Hinata wouldn't ask too many questions. He was not particularly fond of talking about his life.

Hinata was silent for a moment, and she declined when the bartender asked if she wanted to order. Then she turned to Naruto and asked softly, "Are you h-happy there?"

Naruto really hated questions like those. "There's no stress, asides from my assistant's crush on my roommate, I'm in the city, I have a stable job that I love, I'm out and people accept me there. It's a life I have created for myself, and I'm proud of it."

She nodded, then asked, "H-have y-you met any-anyone th-there in Suna?"

"Oh-ho-HO! What's this? Since when has my little Hinata become so interested in other people's love lives?" Naruto teased with a smile.

Hinata smiled politely and blushed from the teasing, but waited for Naruto to answer her question.

He sighed internally, "No proper relationships for me. A fling here and there, and a couple of one-night stands, but nothing to brag about. I'm just not the dating guy."

Hinata looked a little nervous and twiddled her index fingers together as she asked, "Is…that be-because of Sa-Sasuke?"

Damn. That girl really knew how to pack a punch in a question.

Naruto smiled so wide that his eyes started to squint, "And why would you assume that?"

Hinata blushed and her nervous habit of playing with her fingers sped as she stammered, "I-it's ju-just that-t you-you had th-that cru-crush-sh on h-him a-a-and then you sai-said th-that when y-you told-d hi-him—"

Naruto cut her off, "That was a long time ago. I was young and stupid then, believing in soul mates or whatever. Besides, I don't think that even if I _was_ the dating type that anyone would be able to handle me. I mean, my roommate barely can and he's got his spies helping him out."

"Sp-spies?" Hinata asked, being polite as always and accepting that Naruto no longer wanted to talk about the past. Great girl, that Hinata; she almost made Naruto regret being gay.

Naruto waved his hand airily, "My assistant and his siblings."

Hinata nodded her understanding, and then silence fell between the two. Then she asked, "Are…are you go-going to t-t-tell everyone abou-about you being g-gay?"

Naruto paused for a moment, then grabbed his beer with a smile. After taking a generous sip, he answered, "Nah, it wouldn't be worth it."

She gave him a confused look and asked, "Wh-what do y-you mea-mean?"

Naruto smiled wider, "'Cause I don't plan on staying here for more than the weekend… Hopefully less," Naruto added as an afterthought.

"Wh-what?" Hinata asked, somewhat shocked.

He didn't know _why_ she was so shocked by this. After all, she knew very well what happened—or at least an abridged version of what had happened—on Naruto's last day in Konoha ten years ago. She was the only other person he had told that he was leaving and she had understood. So why didn't she understand why he had to leave?

With a sigh, Naruto assumed that it was his coming back in the first place that convinced other people that he was moving back to Konoha instead of just visiting. Whatever, the majority of people never bothered to contact him after he left the first time, so he did not expect much different for when he left this time.

He decided that since Hinata was the exception, then he would actually give her a reason.

"I don't want another repeat of what happened ten years ago," Naruto smiled and joked, "After all, there's no more room on my face for any memorials."

Hinata's response was silence.

Not one for such pauses in conversations—even though they seems to be happening a lot in Konoha—Naruto asked if Hinata wanted to go back to the booth with everyone else.

She agreed with him, and even helped carry back the rather large number of beers Naruto had ordered; he had claimed to the bartender that the beers were for the table, but they were really for him.

As the two walked back, there was only light small talk between them, as neither really wanted to bring up heavy conversations after drudging up the past.

Naruto, for one, hated talking about his personal life to people of Konoha simply because he felt that they were no longer a part of it; Hinata being the exception as she actively kept in touch with Naruto along with one other person from Konoha, as well as Lee, but it was questionable whether or not Lee could be counted with how much of a gossip he was. Hinata had sensed this, and did not talk about their past in Konoha or Naruto's personal life, which Naruto was thankful for.

So instead, the two talked lightly about Hinata's business life and how she was working with Neji as co-CEOs. Apparently while Hinata and Neji made decisions equally, Neji was the one who enforced their decisions since there was a myth that Hinata was less strict.

Naruto had laughed at that, since he knew very well that while his little Hinata was fair and more considerate than most, she was far from a push-over.

When they neared their booth, they saw Kiba leaving it.

"THERE you are!" Kiba exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide.

Naruto rose a blond eyebrow and asked, "'Sup, Kba?" thinking that the other had merely forgotten that Hinata had volunteered to show Naruto the bar.

Kiba shrugged somewhat dramatically and said, "You guys were gone for a while and—"

"You don't have to worry about me stealing you girlfriend, man," Naruto reminded the other, just in case that was what he was worried about.

Kiba shook his head, "No, dude, I already know that. But Sakura said that someone should check up on you."

Now Naruto was slightly confused, why would Sakura say that? Just because he told her about the truth behind his scars? He'd been handling it for ten years, so something as small as revealing the truth wouldn't cause him to crack. Okay, maybe it wasn't _small_ considering he hadn't told anyone other than two other people—one of which being Hinata—but it wasn't as if he was going to break.

Kiba shrugged again, "I'm just the messenger…and searcher guy… Hey! Is that for us?" He tried to grab a bottle of beer from Hinata's arms, but Naruto moved to the side and blocked her with his body.

"Back off, man," Naruto said with a laugh, "_I_ bought all these, so they are mi—"

The last word choked in his mouth.

He couldn't finish the sentence because he no longer remembered what he was going to say.

All Naruto could focus on was what he could see now that he had moved to the side and had a clear view within the booth.

The bastard was there.

Sasuke Uchiha was sitting at the table next to Sakura; Naruto could recognize the back of that head anywhere.

Then on the other side of Sakura, Ino turned around and saw the three of them, "Naruto! What took you two so long? Sit! Sit!" And she gestured with her hand that the three people standing should do what she commanded.

Kiba, for either gentlemanly purposes or for more sinister and selfish reasons, took the bottles of beer from Hinata's arms and led the way back through the booth.

Naruto, however, was rooted to his spot. Sakura and Sasuke had not turned around to face Naruto, though the former's shoulders were tensed, but he could not shake the feeling that the bastard was just waiting for him, and it terrified Naruto.

Then he felt a gentle hand lace onto his arm. He looked over, and saw Hinata offering him a comforting smile, but with a few worry lines in her forehead.

That snapped Naruto back to himself. That's right, no one besides three other people knew about why Naruto had left, so he couldn't let anyone else know that something was amiss.

Naruto smiled widely and followed Kiba back to his seat…across from the bastard.

As soon as he sat down, Naruto immediately opened another Heineken and chugged.

"Whoa, _SOMEONE'S_ thirsty!" Kiba said with a laugh as he slapped Naruto's back, almost causing him to cough up his precious, mind-numbing alcohol.

Naruto swallowed his drink and smiled.

"Is that for everyone?" TenTen asked with interest, though Neji was already wearily keeping an eye on Lee.

Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Nah, this is all for me."

"ALL?" Chouji exclaimed, his eyes widening at the six other beers in front of Naruto.

"What, are you like, an alcoholic now?" Ino asked, wrinkling her nose.

Naruto laughed again, mostly because in actuality, what he had bought was _not_ a lot, and shook his head, "No, but I can hold my liquor, unlike _some_ people I know."

A couple of people laughed at Lee's expense, who was blushing and laughing as well.

While Lee was trying to defend himself—claiming that he could handle half of a bottle—and Neji correcting that statement, Naruto snuck a look at the couple across from him, or more specifically at the female half. Sakura was tense, and looking between Sasuke and Naruto with a worried expression.

Sasuke's head was faced ahead—in Naruto's direction—and Naruto refused to make eye contact.

Hinata must have sensed it and asked, "S-so why is Sa-Sa-Sasuke h-here?"

Ino wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion at Hinata's question, "I invited him of course. Naruto's back so I was told to invite everyone, and 'everyone' includes Sasuke."

Chouji nodded in agreement, "Yea! You guys are best friends, right?"

At that moment, all Naruto wanted to do was run. Just run. Across the table, over people, WHATEVER! He just wanted to be AWAY!

Hinata grabbed his arm, somewhat alarmingly, and squeezed.

Oh, right. Other people didn't know.

Sakura spoke up quickly, "They, uh, kinda grew apart over all these years."

"Whaaaaat?" Ino exclaimed, her eyes widened comically.

"I know right?!" TenTen agreed with Ino, looking between the mentioned men, "You two were inseparable!"

Again, Sakura answered for them, "Well, you know, ten years is a long time."

"But they—" Ino tried to say, but she was cut off.

"Let it go," Shikamaru advised her.

She said, "But—"

"It's none of our business," Shikamaru said flatly.

Naruto wanted to kiss that man. He really did. Shikamaru was a beautiful man inside and out.

However, he was not interested in listening to anything that involved the bastard, so he took another _generous_ gulp of his drink, making his cheeks puff out.

"Dude, did you always have those?" Kiba asked from next to him.

"Hmm?" Naruto asked while he chugged.

"Those!" Kiba exclaimed, poking one of Naruto's cheeks.

Shit.

"Whoa, I _so_ didn't notice them this morning!" TenTen exclaimed.

"Indeed, they seemed to have escaped my notice," Neji agreed with her.

Naruto froze, and then smiled as wide as he could, "You should see the other guy," he joked.

In the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sakura jump and her shoulders tense. He could also feel Hinata's gentle hand wrap around his forearm and squeeze. He appreciated her actions, and appreciated that Sakura understood how tense he felt to an extent, but he secretly wished that they would not react like this, since that made it all the more hard to pretend that he was fine.

"HELL YEA! I bet you wiped the floor with them!" Kiba celebrated, pumping his fist in the air and slapping Naruto in the back.

Naruto smiled and did not reply. Instead, he chugged the rest of his beer.

His head started to feel a little heavy, but he wasn't dizzy yet and there was no satisfying buzz.

"But why were you in a fight at all? It is most disconcerting!" said Lee.

Naruto opened another bottle.

"I bet there was a good reason," Chouji reasoned.

Yea!" Ino exclaimed, slinging her arm around Chouji's shoulders, apparently a little tipsy herself, "Remember that time he got in that fight with that senior freshman year?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Or that time when that guy at the park hit his wife?" TenTen chimed in.

"And that time that guy at the store decided that he needed to prove he was a man?" said Ino.

"What happened?" Lee asked.

"You don't remember?!" Sakura exclaimed, "That guy with the creeper stash hit on Ino, and when Naruto called him out on it they got in a fight!"

"Weren't they banned from the store?" Neji deadpanned.

Ino rolled her eyes dramatically, "That's not the point!"

Naruto watched as Ino demanded that Shikamaru explain her point to Neji. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and ignored the command. Then Chouji gave another example of a time when Naruto got in a fight, causing another round of what fights did Naruto get into in high school.

There weren't that many stories about the fights that Naruto fought in middle school and earlier. Most attributed that to the belief that Naruto only did pranks during that time, but Naruto knew that the lack of stories was because not many people paid attention to him then.

But he didn't voice any of this. Rather, he just quietly drank his beer with a smile plastered on his face.

He was finally feeling dizzy, and lines were beginning to move. However, while he was buzzed, the stomach pterodactyls would not let him be happy about that.

No giggles. Damn.

He hated it when he was a depressed drunk.

Then Naruto jumped a little when he heard Sasuke's name.

He tried to listen hard, and through the drunken garble that was his hearing at the moment, he heard the retelling of a fight where he and Sasuke were tag-teaming a bunch of thugs together.

Naruto sighed into his drink.

The particular fight that was being described was against some guys from the area where Sound University was located. Though it was not mentioned in this retelling, the reason was because they had jeered at Naruto, calling him a fag, and that had set Naruto off since he was still hiding in the closet at that point; and then Sasuke joined in claiming that Naruto couldn't handle them himself. It was that incident that caused Sasuke to swear that he would never go to Sound University, though it was not said in the story.

What _was_ mentioned in this retelling was how well Naruto and Sasuke fought together. They were compared to professionals who had trained together because of their fluidity in their tag team.

Just hearing the bastard's name being repeated, and being joined with his own, made Naruto feel sick to his stomach.

The only logical cure for his stomach was alcohol; sweet, sweet mind-numbing alcohol.

He saw that he only had one bottle left.

That was a shame. He should buy more after he finished with this one.

Naruto tried to grab for his last bottle, but the damn thing kept moving! The table, too!

He reached his hand out hesitantly, and glared at the moving bottle. It was mocking him, he could tell.

"Need some help, dude?" Kiba asked, his muffled voice full of amusement or some other happy emotion.

"Naw," Naruto drawled, narrowing his eyes into a squint in the hopes that that would help him see better, "'M goooooood. The damn bittle keeps moving at me."

"Bittle?" the shadowy person-shaped lump from the other side of Kiba asked.

"Yes buttle!" Naruto slurred, "Right there!"

The purple person with a yellow head that he was pointing at laughed in a girl's voice and said, "Well thank you for complimenting my hourglass figure, but I'm not a bottle."

Naruto groaned a little, the moving bottle was moving too much and other things were distracting him.

He decided that he had waited enough and reached for the glass. But it moved! So Naruto accidentally knocked over the empty bottles.

Laughter erupted from around the table.

Naruto was pleased to find that he didn't mind the laughter at his expense; especially since someone helped put the moving bottle in his hand.

He was about to open it, for he was proficient at opening alcoholic beverages while intoxicated, a special talent of his, when he heard a baritone chuckle; a _very_ familiar chuckle even after all these years.

Looking up, Naruto saw the bastard smirking at him before the bastard said, "I didn't think it was possible, but it seems that you _can_ get clumsier."

There was more laughter, but this time was different; because Naruto hated this laughter.

"Fuck you!" Naruto spat at the bastard.

The laughter stopped, but Naruto didn't care. All he was focused on was the bastard's smug face.

The expression _may_ have been void of emotion, but even through the haze, Naruto could _tell_ that it was the bastard's smug indifferent expression.

Then the bastard gave a challenging smirk, and grunted, "Hn."

That set Naruto off.

He stood up abruptly, causing some of his empty bottles to fall and people to say his name a lot in startled tones.

"The fuck is you're problem?!" Naruto demanded.

"Naruto—" someone tried to say, but he didn't want to hear any of it.

"No! I didn't even WANT to come here! And now you're just proving I was right, you bastard!" Naruto exclaimed, jabbing a finger at the bastard's direction.

With that, Naruto stormed off.

He may or may not have heard people calling his name, or even hands on his shoulders, but he just ignored them and shrugged everything off.

Naruto power walked to the front of the restaurant, and then schooled his expression into a smile. He asked the hostess, maybe slurring only once or twice, for the number for a taxi to bring him to a hotel for the night.

The girl was very nice, and said that she would call for him, explaining that it was no problem at all when Naruto thanked her.

After that, he quickly went outside the building and slumped at the bench seat that was darkest and waited for his cab.

He decided that he didn't care whatever Sakura or anyone else did: he was buying the first ticket back home tomorrow and leaving Konoha forever.

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**Over the weekend I went to a friend's hometown for her baby shower, and was treated to a mini tour and funventure. I never considered myself true City, as I grew up in suberbs, but apparently I am more City than I thought because all during the road trip I was repeatedly being amazed at stuff considered normal for rural areas. So that prompted by friends who grew up in areas like those to take me on tours and laugh at how amazed I got at all these little things.**

**Anyways, thank you to those who favorite/alerted this story! And an extra special thanks to those who review! I love ya'll!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**I usually feel bad whenever I find the need to write a more vindictive, immature, or just plain bitchy female character because that usually leads to writing Sakura as the female antagonist. I would like it to be known that I do not hate Sakura; it is just that Part I Sakura is easiest to write in that role and I would much rather make characters slightly OOC than to make up new characters. I reeeeally hate OC characters and try my best to keep any OC characters to a minimum in my stories and if I need them, I try to keep them in the background. Ah, I feel like Sakura's gunna get a lot of slack for this chapter. But that's ok, I enjoy hearing what people have to say about their favorite/least favorite characters. It's always a little treat to see whenever people review.**

**Anyways, Onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Naruto groaned when he was awoken to what sounded like his door being assaulted by rocks.

He grabbed a pillow—that was so damn fluffy that he was seriously considering taking it for himself, or at least learning where the hotel bought them—and clumsily covered the side of his head with it. He hoped that it would muffle the sound since his hangover _so_ couldn't handle loud noises.

It didn't help.

The rocks somehow morphed into guns shooting at his door.

Naruto groaned again, and threw the pillow against the door, maybe… He threw it in some direction.

He hoped it hit the door.

The door assaulting did not stop.

Dammit.

Naruto groaned again, unable to make coherent words. It was morning, and he had a hangover; words weren't his forte.

Then FINALLY! The door stopped making noise!

He sighed in sweet relief. Now he could focus on the pillows that were keeping his head from exploding.

Now that he was awake, Naruto was becoming increasingly aware of just _how_ hung over he was, and he was not enjoying a moment of it. In fact, he would go so far as to say that he hated being hung over. Yeah, he knew that he had a _very_ high tolerance for liquor, as well as being _very_ good at holding his liquor, and that a few times he had said that someone can't truly claim to be drunk if there are no hangovers, but this _SUCKED_!

_Maybe_ he was exaggerating; he hadn't mixed any drinks, and he DEFINITELY drank more on other nights, making last night look merely tame… But none of those times came to mind at the moment.

Being hung over sucked.

Just when Naruto was beginning to forget why he was awake in the first place, his door was assaulted again.

Poor door.

But more importantly: POOR NARUTO'S HEAD!

"Shudduuuuuuup," Naruto moaned pathetically, grabbing another pillow and covering his head with it.

His door wasn't listening to him.

The only logical solution, then, was to cover himself with the unbelievably comfy blankets.

After all, no one could bother him if he was under the blankets. It was the natural order of things. Blankets protect from all; monsters under the bed, monsters in the closet, monsters banging on the door. Oh yeah, his blanket got him covered.

The bullets pummeling the door stopped, and Naruto sighed in relief again.

Now he could sleep off his hangover in peace.

Unfortunately, just as he poked his head from under the covers, his phone started to shrilly ring.

"Fuuuuuuck," Naruto grumbled as his phone was not ONLY obnoxiously making loud noises at him and his headache, but was also vibrating as well from…somewhere.

Naruto groaned again, unable to form words.

He decided to wait out the phone, just like with the door.

He pulled the covers back over his head; now no one should be able to bother him.

But a mere ten seconds or so after his phone stopped ringing, it started to ring again.

"Oh, come _ON_!" Naruto grumbled, throwing the blankets off of himself. Whoever wanted him up was determined, that much was obvious. And it pissed him off. _Now_ he had to get up officially!

While still laying down, Naruto started slamming his hand on the night stand closest to him, hoping that his phone was on there. There was noise coming from his slapping around, but when Naruto cracked a probably bloodshot, blue eye open, he saw that it was not because of his phone jumping up and down but because of other things like a notepad and pen for evaluations or whatever.

The phone kept making noise, so Naruto lifted himself up a little to scan the bed and other night stand with his one opened eye, hoping that he would see his phone quickly and not have to open the other eye.

He was not so lucky.

The phone stopped ringing and vibrating, but just like before, within a couple of seconds, it began to make noises again.

Naruto groaned loudly as he tumbled off the bed. His phone was probably in his pants; after the cab dropped him off at the hotel last night, Naruto promptly ordered himself a room and as soon as he was inside said room, he took off his clothes—except for his boxers—and went to bed.

Picking himself off the floor—and congratulating himself for doing so since he _had_ been known to be so badly hung over that he could not even accomplish that at times—Naruto reluctantly opened his other eye so he could find his pants.

He found them on the floor at the foot of the bed, and sure enough, his phone was getting louder the closer he got to his pants.

Naruto stumbled to the floor while attempting to just bend down to pick up his pants.

While on the floor, he reached out and grabbed them, and then began searching for his pockets.

He fished out his phone from a pocket as it stopped ringing and vibrating. But soon enough, it started right back up again seconds later.

Naruto flipped his phone open and curtly grumbled, "What?"

"Open the door, Naruto," Sakura's voice said loudly, both from the phone and from outside his door.

He groaned, of _course_ it was his persona; harbinger of doom. "Why?" he croaked out, his throat rather dry in his hangover.

"Because we're going to eat breakfast," Sakura answered as if it was natural to forcibly awaken someone and make loud noises when they have a hangover.

Naruto paused, then asked, "We didn't make plans, did we?" His memory was hazy, but still there and he was fairly certain that they did _not_ make plans.

Sakura sighed loudly enough so that Naruto could hear it both from the phone and from outside the door. "We DID make plans for you to stay at my old apartment, but then you blew them off to stay here."

"Oh," was all Naruto could say. It figured that his plan of escape wouldn't work. That pink-haired she-devil always caught him in the end it seemed.

"So are you going to open the door or not?" Sakura huffed over the phone.

"Do I even have a choice?" Naruto groaned, heaving himself off the floor for the _second_ time in the fast few minutes.

He clumsily reached for the door, and on the second attempt he opened it to see a smiling Sakura.

"Nope," she pulled her phone away from her ear with a grin, "you don't have a choice."

Naruto glared at her. He was hung over, dammit, he just wanted to find a dark place to drink the coffee provided in his rooms so he could work off his pounding headache.

Sakura's green eyes scanned Naruto's lack of clothes and said, "Now get dressed. We're going to eat breakfast here."

"In the room without any lights on?" Naruto asked hopefully, turning around to do Sakura's bidding.

"Not in a million years, Naruto," Sakura said in the same tone she used whenever he would ask her out as children before he realized that he was gay.

Hearing the tone, Naruto turned around confused. Then he realized what he said sounded like and snorted, which turned out to be a bad idea for his pounding head, "I have a hangover, sweetie, so you can get over yourself."

Sakura slapped him in response.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, wincing at his own loud voice, "Hangover!" he reminded her in a softer voice.

Sakura rolled her eyes, silently telling him that he got what he deserved. Then she said, "I'll be waiting in the hotel restaurant."

"Can't wait," Naruto grumbled, closing the door as she turned around.

As he turned around himself to face his rented room, all he wanted to do was flop back on the bed and curl himself into one of the comfiest cocoons he would ever be in. But no. The pink-haired she-devil had found him.

_Maybe_ he was being rude in giving her such a nickname since she had been one of his best friends before he left Konoha, especially since she had helpfully and successfully answered questions last night so Naruto would not have to… But she woke him up and was noisy when he clearly had a hangover!

Only she-devils did that.

With another groan, Naruto braced his hand against the wall so that he could pick up his clothes without falling down this time. He was pretty sure that he had left his luggage in Sakura's trunk, so all that he was left with was the clothes that he had worn yesterday.

They didn't reek of alcohol or anything, so he had no qualms. And if Sakura did, then she would just have to deal with it.

After he got dressed well enough for himself as he barely bothered to even zip his fly, he decided that he might as well try to freshen up.

But, along with his clothes, his toothbrush and toothpaste were in his luggage, and the hotel did not offer those particular toiletries.

The hotel did, though, offer lotions and soaps and other things for a shower later, which Naruto noted. But since Sakura was waiting for him, his shower could wait since he had a tendency to take longer showers when he was hung over.

So to freshen up, Naruto drank some water and swished it around in his mouth in a vain attempt to get rid of the alcohol smell in his breath he probably had. Oh well, he could cover it up with coffee breath over breakfast. He also splashed water in his face to wake himself up.

He looked in the mirror and was satisfied. Sure he had some major bedhead, and he had some bags under his eyes, but his hair was normally messy and the bags were nowhere near the level of his insomniac roommate who went to the lengths of covering them up with massive amounts of eyeliner or other eye gunk.

Nodding to himself and giving himself a wink since he was _always_ sexy as hell, Naruto grabbed the room key and went downstairs to accompany Sakura.

While in the elevator—since there was no way he was navigating stairs while hung over—he decided that he was not really hungry, so he'd just order himself an iced coffee.

With that in mind, when he reached the dining area and saw Sakura's pink head at a table near the corner, by a window, Naruto slumped into a chair and mumbled that Sakura could order her food any time she was ready.

"But it's a buffet," Sakura reminded him with amusement in her voice.

Naruto blearily looked around the hotel and saw that indeed there as a buffet. He shrugged to himself; he was expecting a fancy place like this to have waitresses and bathroom tenants who expected tips and all that jazzy stuff.

He heaved himself up from the table and walked over to the drink section, where he saw an abundance of choices. There were pots of individual coffees, one of those machine things Naruto couldn't remember the name of in his current state of incoherence that had many soda options, and a display full of individual glass bottles of other drinks like milk, juice, water, and his precious iced coffee.

Naruto grabbed two bottles of iced coffee and a bottle of water and went to the checkout line. Normally, he would engage in conversation, but this was Konoha and he was hung over, so he did not bother. Then he walked over to the table and slumped in his chair again.

He immediately popped open a bottle of iced coffee and began chugging it down.

In the back of his mind, he remembered his old mentor groggily explaining that alcohol and coffee were not the ideal combination once when Naruto was assisting Jiraiya during one of the old man's hangovers. Jiraiya would always complain about a lady doctor friend who would prattle off about the brain getting dehydrated by the combination, so during their drinking nights, they would always take care to drink plenty of water. Jiraiya would say it made him piss more, making Naruto punch him in the shoulder for the TMI, but it would help in the long run and during the morning cure.

With that in mind, Naruto tore himself from his iced coffee and drank some water.

After he finished about a quarter of his water, Sakura sat down in front of him with a tray laden with food, though mostly fruit.

"You didn't get anything?" she asked.

"Hung over," Naruto reminded her.

"Oh wow," she said, slightly surprised, "I don't think I've ever seen you hung over before."

"Oh trust me, you have," Naruto promised her, leaning his head against the table.

"Really? When?" Sakura asked, taking a bite out of her rabbit food.

"During junior year of high school," Naruto told her, "those were the days that I wouldn't pull any pranks."

"But you only seemed tired on those days! Nothing like this!" Sakura exclaimed, somewhat loudly in her surprised revelation of the past.

Naruto winced at her loud voice and informed her quietly, "Well, yeah, I had to hide it, didn't I? I was kinda under-aged then so getting caught would have meant more than a detention. Now I don't have to hide it."

Sakura was mercifully silent for a moment, which Naruto used to his advantage and guzzled down the rest of his iced coffee.

When he placed the empty bottle down, Sakura commented somewhat hesitantly, "But there were many days you went without pranking anyone back then…especially during the end of the year before summer…"

Naruto didn't look at her as he grabbed his bottle of water.

She spoke again, "Did…did something happen? I mean…you—you said that those days you were hung over so…was it…were you getting drunk because you could or…was it because of something else?"

Naruto did not answer her. Instead, he drank some more of his water.

The truth was the latter: he needed to escape and he found the way to do so with alcohol. Since, unlike Sakura or the pompous bastard, Naruto lived in the slums part of the 'city', it was relatively easy for him to acquire his means of escape.

He was aware that Sakura was staring at him, waiting for him to answer, but he refused to. Instead, he asked, "You gunna eat that?" gesturing towards her apple.

Sakura didn't reply right away and rubbed her arm; her habit whenever she wanted to bring something up, but not knowing how to word it or bring it up delicately.

Naruto had no desire to help her in this instance, so he muttered his thanks and grabbed the apple off her tray.

After he bit into the apple, she burst out with a quiet, "And then…and then you left over the summer…"

Naruto sighed. She wouldn't give up until he gave her an answer. "Yea, I was a bit down during high school, but I grew out of it. And I left during the summer 'cause the bastard and I got into that fight."

Sakura rubbed her arm again; she didn't even bother to tell Naruto to not call Sasuke a bastard.

When they were younger, Naruto would do anything in his power to keep such an expression off of Sakura's face, since he knew that if he let them fester then her imagination would run wild—not as much as Naruto's would, though—and she would continuously feel worse about the situation, and probably end up blaming herself.

But this time, he had no desire to help Sakura out in this situation, or help her out at all. Ten years apart was one too many years for arise his sympathies as immediately as before.

It didn't help that the thing Sakura wanted to talk about was Naruto's darkest period in life. Hell, even the time spent homeless in Suna was better than that time. He hated even _thinking_ about the end of his junior year in high school until he left, and had done a thorough job in disciplining himself against it. He had no intention of bringing up the subject himself.

Instead, he opened his second bottle of iced coffee and started to drink, slower than before, from it.

In front of him, Sakura was still rubbing her arm and looking away. But she also was starting to bite her lip; something she would do if the subject she wanted to bring up was something she _knew_ that the other didn't want to talk about, but she felt _needed_ to be discussed.

Dammit. Naruto hated when she bit her lip.

If she didn't say what was on her mind soon, then she would internalize the problem and blame herself for the problem based off of her insecurities.

It seemed like ten years was in fact _not_ enough time to squash away the sympathy.

Naruto groaned; he didn't feel like having sympathy when he had a hangover, "Just spit it out already."

Sakura jumped a little, and asked, "What?" in a false tone as if she had no idea what he was talking about.

Naruto turned to her, resisting squinting or blocking out the sun with his hand since it was too damn bright but she needed to know he was serious, and repeated, "Just spit it out already."

"I don't know what you mean," Sakura insisted, a little loudly, adding to Naruto's headache, and looking away.

Naruto sighed heavily, "You keep forgetting that I can _always_ tell when you're lying." Sakura was about to speak up, but he cut her off, "I can ALSO tell when you want to ask a question but don't know how to bring it up. Well, I just brought it up, so spit it out."

Sakura was silent for a moment, but she stopped rubbing her arm; she was just looking away and biting her lip. That meant that she was trying to word her question in her head.

Naruto sighed again, but kept silent. Instead, he turned in his chair so that his back was to the window and he didn't have the way too bright sun in his eyes. He drank some more of his iced coffee.

Then Sakura hesitantly asked in a quiet voice, "Was the reason you and Sasuke got into a fight because you were…gay?"

Her question made Naruto freeze.

He carefully set down his bottle of iced coffee, and without looking at her, answered just as quietly even though they were separated from anyone else in a tone he hoped was aloof, "Yep."

She was silent, and probably looking down at her plate of barely eaten rabbit food.

In an effort to lighten the mood, Naruto commented, "Still am gay, by the way." He never understood those people who thought that a person could choose to be gay, and he certainly did not miss her use of the word 'were'.

She was still silent, probably trying to process everything in her head. Sakura had a strange tendency where while she would be perfectly aware of possible explanations for things that troubled her, she would write them off as impossible or unimportant, and thus would not think about the probability of the explanation being true and did not know how to handle it. Normally, the tendency was not a big deal as she only displayed it whenever the situation involved Sasuke, but whenever she did display it, though, it was downright annoying.

Naruto inwardly sighed. He knew that whenever she didn't understand what was going on, Sakura tended to be irrational.

That meant that he had to tell her a dumbed down portion of the truth so that she wouldn't start assuming idiotic things like Naruto chose to be gay or that everything was her fault.

He did not want to go into detail, though, so he kept everything to a minimum as he said, "Well, I'm leaving as soon as I can, so I might as well tell you why I left."

That certainly got Sakura's attention. He was right in thinking that she was staring at her uneaten rabbit food, since she just looked up when Naruto turned his head to face her.

He placed a wry smile on his face as he explained, "I knew I was gay before high school even started. I got drunk a lot our junior year because I was tired of needing to hide it. I also drank because I was tired of hiding my feelings for the bastard. So over the summer before senior year, I told the bastard that I thought I loved him. He didn't like that so he tried to beat the shit out of me. We fought, he cheated and used a weapon, and he told me to leave and never return. Melodramatic, I know," Naruto forced himself to laugh and smile wider as he rubbed the back of his neck, "But I knew that this town will never accept someone out of the closet, so I left."

Sakura was silent; probably mulling everything over.

Whatever, she could take her time. Naruto did his part in making sure that she wouldn't blame herself, so he decided to finish up his iced coffee and hope that it would ebb the hangover away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sakura's shoulders hump up together.

Shit. That was never good.

He turned to face her again, wearily.

He saw that she was biting her lip again. When she saw that he was facing her again, she closed her eyes and whispered, "I'm so sorry…"

Naruto was confused, "For what?"

Sakura opened her eyes and said, "I should have done something to help earlier but…but I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Naruto asked, truly confused. He knew that back then, there were rumors about his being gay since he was not exactly the most popular of people who kept getting into trouble, but those rumors mostly stemmed from people's general dislike of the unruly orphan brat who kept pranking people and that he never dated anybody. There was no real basis for the rumors since he was so deep in the closet, so they were barely paid any real attention to other than to give people something else to pick on him for.

Naruto knew that if he came out of the closet then people would do worse than occasionally push him against the lockers or knock down his books while calling him a fag, which caused him to drink more so during the end of his junior year. The idea scared him into staying in the closet, but he had no idea why Sakura would be afraid; no one would call _her_ gay or anything, so he did not understand why she would say something like that.

Sakura spoke again, "I…I suspected back then that…that you were gay and that…that you had feelings for—for Sasuke…"

Naruto didn't answer.

Instead, he took another sip of his iced coffee.

But in his peripheral vision, he could see Sakura staring at him. Damn, she was expecting an answer. Though, what she expected him to say, he had no idea.

"Oh," was all he said.

Apparently it was all Sakura needed, because after he said that monosyllabic filler, she said with her head faced down again, as if ashamed, "But I…I love Sasuke…so much," Naruto had to refrain from rolling his eyes as she continued, "and I…was so scared that…I was so scared that you would steal him from me if he knew!"

"Mm," Naruto grunted into his drink, suddenly wishing it was a shot of pure vodka…though he really shouldn't; drinking first thing in the morning was not classy… But he never _really_ cared about being classy, and it was five o'clock somewhere!

Sakura hiccupped a little. Great, now she was crying. Damn women, why do they feel the need to cry during tense situations? Don't they know that men have no idea what to do with a crying woman? It was the main reason Naruto would try his best to prevent such an action when they were younger.

She wiped a few tears from her face, but kept looking down, and continued shakily, "It was just that…well, you guys were so close! YOU were his best friend! And you were basically his only link to the rest of us! He would have been more than happy if it was just the two of you! And I knew…I knew that I could NEVER beat you if he knew how you felt…"

"Well you get your wish then," Naruto cut in, not wanting to hear any more, "because as soon as I get a ticket, I am _out_ of here. And this time, I am _definitely_ not coming back."

Sakura's head shot up, all teary eyed and everything, and tried to say, "But—"

Naruto cut her off, "But nothing. I don't care if that bastard is being his usual bastardy self and you guys don't know how to handle him. That's _your_ problem, not mine. I shouldn't have even come back in the first place."

Sakura winced, but tried again and exclaimed, "But you don't get it!"

"What's there to get?" Naruto challenged, "You live with the bastard and are helping raise his little nephew, and I'm getting the hell outa here. Ergo, your wish is granted, or whatever."

"No! That's not the point!" Sakura exclaimed, though not loudly enough to bring any attention towards their little corner or the dining area; just enough to aggravate Naruto's headache.

'_Well, you're doing a shitty job at getting to the point_,' Naruto wanted to say, but he held himself back. He could not, however, hold himself back from rolling his eyes as he drank some more of his iced coffee.

"I…" she was quiet once more in her explanation, looking down at her uneaten rabbit food again, "All this time, I've been clinging to an unrequited love… I see that now…"

Naruto sent her an incredulous glance, but she didn't see it, so she continued, "I thought that if I just loved him hard enough…long enough…"

'_That's what she said_,' Naruto thought before he could stop himself.

"… Then he would love me back. That's how it's supposed to work, right?" she added that part in as a rhetorical question if her tone of voice was any indication, "So I…I kept close to him… And after you left, I…I…" she choked back a sob, "I tried to use it to my advantage, and try to replace you as his best friend… But…but our friendship was coming from me, mostly… He never opened up to me… Or to anyone after you left…"

Naruto rolled his eyes again. He didn't care about this. Well, he cared that Sakura was crying to an extent, but he didn't care about how the bastard, or anyone else, felt after he left.

Sakura wiped her eyes again, and continued, "After his parents died…I tried to be there for him, but he…he just blocked everyone out further… He would hardly ever come to social meetings with anyone unless he absolutely needed to, or unless Itachi told him to… I tried… I tried to turn our relationship to the next level…but he barely considered us to be friends in the first place… But after Shisui was born he…he seemed more receptive to the idea of our friendship… But that…looking back at it now…I know that it was mostly for Shisui's benefit so he could have at least one woman in his life…"

Why did she feel the need to tell Naruto this? Was he giving some sort of sign that he desperately wanted to know all this shit? And people thought _HE_ talked too much!

Sakura continued, "But then…after Itachi died…I…he…Sasuke…" she took a deep breath to calm herself, not that it worked judging by the tears, "I couldn't do anything for him when he needed me the most!"

"Well, you know how the bastard gets," Naruto commented off-handedly, trying to move the conversation faster so he could leave and get his plane ticket out of Konoha, "when he's upset he'll lock himself away and won't let anyone close to him."

"But you did!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, completely confused. He did what?

"You got close to him!" Sakura said, as if the words that she was saying made sense.

"… Come again?" Naruto asked. How the hell did he 'get close' to Sasuke? All the two did was yell at each other.

"Just by coming back, you got him to show some emotion!" Sakura insisted, wiping the tears away from her eyes rather forcefully.

"…We just yelled at each other…" Naruto said weakly, still not understanding what the big deal was, and wanting to leave.

"It might have just seemed like anger to you, but that's the first time…the FIRST time…that Sasuke expressed himself in a very long time!" Sakura insisted.

"Whatever," Naruto mumbled, not caring whether or not the bastard shouted at other people.

But Sakura said in reply, "You even got Sasuke to go to the restaurant!"

Naruto rolled his eyes again, "You guys did that. I didn't even want the bastard to show up."

"Don't you get it, Naruto?!" Sakura asked, exasperated.

"Not at all," Naruto replied bluntly.

"I've been by his side for the ten years that you have been gone, but I haven't been able to do anything to help him since Itachi died! I haven't been able to do half as much in a couple of weeks as you have in a couple of hours!" Sakura exclaimed as if her logic could be understood by all.

"Why does that even matter?" Naruto groaned. All he wanted to do was go back up to that comfy hotel room, lie in bed for an hour or two, book the first flight out of Konoha, and in the time he had left discover what types of sheets and pillows the hotel used and maybe go for a few bowls of ramen. Learning about the lengths Sakura does for her love for the bastard was not on Naruto's agenda.

Sakura looked at Naruto with a new determination in her eyes and said, "It matters because Sasuke needs you, Naruto."

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**I feel like I fail as a college student, and maybe as a fan of Naruto, because unfortunately for me…and it pains me to admit it…but…I do not like ramen. It is so shameful! It's like, a REQUIREMENT to love ramen while in college! The cafeteria food sucks a lot of the time, and being a college student means that there is a tight budget, ergo, college students love ramen. But I do not! All of the sad! I tried a multitude of flavors, but in the end, the noodles themselves are too salty for my tastes. Apparently, it is an acquired taste, and since I did not learn to love it as a child, I shall not acquire a love for ramen. I still have a lot of ramen in my closet with the multitude of packets of different flavors when I was searching for my right flavor, but since I didn't like any of them, I am trying to bribe them away. Lucky for me, I live on campus with people who DO love ramen.**

**Anyway, thank you for those who favorite/subscribe!**

**And an extra special thanks to those who reply! To show my thanks, those who review will get a sneak peek into the next chapter! Another confession of mine is that I am vain, and I love, love, LOVE it when people give insightful/long reviews since it shows how much they really like a story. So as an extra thanks, those who review with those types of my favorite reviews will get an even longer sneak peek. Because I love you so much!**

**The next chapter is special because it is the last one of part 1, and I'll be taking a break from this story after next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Sometimes, when I need emotional support for the day or feel like wearing pajamas all day, I'll bring a stuffed animal to class. So far, none of my teachers or classmates have commented about it other than asking me what the name of my stuffed animal is. Never why am I bringing it to class. I figure it's because I'm just awesome like that.**

**Onwards with the chapter!**

* * *

Naruto was convinced.

Sakura was a witch.

He was wrong before when he called her a she-devil, because she was clearly a witch; she could use evil magic.

It was the only way he could think of to explain everything: how she got him to come back to Konoha, and now this.

She had clearly used her evil magic full of evil trickery to evilly bring Naruto back to the Uchiha Mansion…in an evil fashion.

He had no idea how it happened. One moment, she's spouting off why the bastard apparently _needs_ Naruto, and the next thing Naruto knew, he was in the car, parked in front of the Uchiha Mansion.

So, logically, the only explanation Naruto could think of was that Sakura had used her magic against Naruto.

Evil magic.

Because she was a witch.

"What are we doing?" Naruto asked.

"Parking the car," Sakura asked, apparently choosing to be ignorant.

She really needed to work on that.

"Not what I meant," Naruto shot back. When Sakura didn't reply and merely continued to park the car, Naruto sighed heavily and said, "I meant, what are we doing _HERE_?"

"Oh…that…" Sakura said after a pause.

"Yes _that_," said Naruto, getting irritated quickly.

Sakura was silent for a moment, and then she took in a deep breath and said in a determined tone, "We're here to get Sasuke to see reason."

Naruto snorted, and he tried his best to hold back his laughter, but it was really hard. Sometimes Sakura said the funniest things.

"What?" Sakura demanded, clearly not expecting such a reaction from Naruto.

"It's just that…you…" Naruto tried to hold back his laughter again, "you think that the _bastard_ can see _reason_?!"

Sakura turned to face him with a stern, determined expression on her face, and then she nodded seriously.

That did it.

Naruto burst out in laughter. It was the good laughter, coming straight from the belly that made his sides hurt, and eventually made him run out of breath. He seriously should have made her say that sooner, or at LEAST record her saying that for whenever he needed a good laugh.

"WHAT is so damn _funny_?!" Sakura demanded to know.

Naruto couldn't answer; he was still laughing.

"Narutooooooo," Sakura growled out warningly, she started to raise a fist at him.

He held up a hand, gesturing for her to wait. He needed to catch his breath and his sides were still sore.

After a moment or two, with a few snorts trying to repress the laughter, Naruto explained, while occasionally pausing to laugh, "You are talking about the BASTARD here!" a pause for more laughter, "Trying to get him to see reason about why he apparently needs help is like trying to get Voldemort to see why killing is bad."

Sakura made an unimpressed face at Naruto's choice of analogy, and chastised, "Don't call him a bastard."

Naruto shrugged, "I call it like I see it."

Sakura sent him a glare, then turned off the ignition and unlocked the doors. "C'mon," she said as she opened her door.

Naruto sighed heavily. He didn't want to do this. He _really_ didn't want to do this. A part of him wanted to simply hotwire the car and drive to the airport so that he can buy his damn ticket already and be gone by that evening. He just wanted to _leave_ Konoha and never come back.

But a larger part of him told himself to get out of the car. NOBODY would ever call Naruto NAMIKEZE a coward, and _nobody_ would ever accuse him of backing down from a challenge. That wasn't his way and life, and he would make no exceptions; not even for the bastard.

He took in a deep breath, and braced himself. Then, he opened the door and got out of the car quickly before he lost his nerve.

Naruto followed Sakura up the stairs to the mansion. She already had her keys out, so she opened the door rather quickly.

Once the door was opened, she gestured for Naruto to follow her, which he did so quietly. When they were inside, Sakura checked her phone for the time, and Naruto checked his watch. It was quarter to ten. Damn, in a perfect world, Naruto would still be asleep in that comfy bed at the hotel, even though he had mostly recovered from his hangover by now; no headache or nauseous feeling at all. He always _was_ fast at recovery.

Well, in a truly perfect world, Naruto wouldn't even be in Konoha at all. But that was beside the point.

They seemed to be headed for the same direction that they went the last time Naruto visited the day before.

"Uh, are we headed to Mr. Uchih—_the bastard's_ study?" Naruto asked to be certain.

"Of course," Sakura answered, "Sasuke always works Saturday mornings, he had ever since his father died."

Naruto whistled, "Married to his work, eh. Sucks to be him."

He knew that the bastard's work schedule was not the thing he had to focus on, but he didn't want to focus on thing 'important' things like what he would say when he saw the bastard again. He didn't care if Temari and Kankuro called it a defense mechanism of his, it was working for him. It was getting him down the hallway without emptying out his stomach, wasn't it?

Then he saw the doors to the study, and he unconsciously hitched his breath.

The study had always been a forbidden room to him, no matter how many times he had visited the mansion or how many times Mrs. Uchiha had told him to consider their house his second home. It was always the unspoken rule that Mr. Uchiha's study was off limits, and that he should avoid it when possible, and to stay quiet around the room when it was not possible to avoid being near; after being in the study the day before, the study still seemed somewhere that he needed to avoid; even _more_ so because of yesterday.

The two stopped in front of the door to the study. Sakura's breath hitched as well, as if she, once again, had just realized that she was about to bring Naruto and Sasuke into the same room together. Naruto _could_ have comforted her, and tell her that he had no intention of starting a fight, but that would have been a lie, and he was not feeling all that generous. If he was downright honest with himself, he was GLAD that Sakura was realizing the full magnitude of the situation.

And while he was being completely honest with himself, Naruto could admit to himself that he wanted to start a fight with the bastard, so that this time, he could leave Konoha on his own terms.

That reminded him…he still needed to buy a ticket to Suna.

Oh well, he could do that after he left here, which shouldn't take more than about ten minutes or so; Naruto didn't want to waste time.

"So, uh…" Sakura quietly said, rubbing her arm, "I'll uh…go in first?"

She looked in Naruto's direction behind her, her expression beseeching, like when Sasuke was questioning her about going to Suna. It was like she was asking _him_ to go in first.

Naruto had to hold back a snort. There was no way in hell that he was going into the study first! He would definitely NOT it past the bastard to have a specialized 'Naruto alert' and several traps set up just for the unlikelihood that Naruto randomly show up in the study…especially since the bastard and Naruto did just that for their 'secret hideout'—a somewhat deep closet that Mrs. Uchiha had emptied for them—against Itachi, even though in hindsight, Itachi only teased about entering the 'hideout' and had never actually done anything to suggest that he would enter it.

Besides, he didn't even want to be near here; Sakura did.

Naruto nodded in response to her question. Yes, _she_ would be going in first.

Sakura nodded, more to herself, and took in a deep breath before placing her hand on the handle.

Unlike before, Naruto knew that Sakura would barely remember to knock, so he positioned himself closer to the wall so he could not be seen. Sure enough, Sakura was about to open the door, but paused and knocked on the door, but immediately opened it anyway.

"Hello, Sasuke," Sakura greeted, somewhat hesitantly.

"Hn," the bastard's voice grunted. That meant that he wanted Sakura to leave immediately; he was not interested in whatever she had to say.

"I, uh, I…" Sakura stuttered, but she was cut off.

"Spit it out," the bastard demanded, like Naruto had earlier in the morning, but with more force and venom than Naruto had by far.

Naruto peeked through a crack between the door and the wall. He saw Sakura rubbing her arm, and—probably unconsciously—inching towards the door.

"I wanted to know whether or not Shisui is back," said Sakura quietly. Her tone was nowhere near as confident as it had been the day before.

"No," the bastard's voice clipped.

"Do you know when he'll be back?" Sakura asked just as quietly.

"Afternoon," the bastard answered just as shortly as before.

"Oh, well, that's good…" Sakura trailed off. She then glanced to the door that Naruto was peeking behind.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. That meant that Sakura should leave now.

Sakura jumped a little at the grunt, obviously understanding the intent behind it. She kept glancing furiously at the door until she was outright staring at it; probably hoping that Naruto would burst in and save her like he did the day before. But he was not in the mood to be anyone's knight in shining armor.

She must have understood that Naruto would not come into the study of his own volition, so she stammered something inaudible and she walked to the door.

She opened the door, and despite Naruto frantically shaking his head, she pulled on his arm and dragged him into the study.

"I'll, um, I'll leave you two to discuss…things…" she trailed off as she backed through the doorway before closing it.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, rushing to the door.

But before Naruto could reach the door, he heard, "What are you doing here?"

Naruto did not turn around as he replied to the bastard, "Leaving."

"What?" the bastard asked immediately. Naruto must have imagined the surprised tone in the bastard's voice.

"I'm leaving," Naruto repeated, "for good this time. I barely even know why I came in the first place as I'm so obviously unwanted here. But Sakura came barging into my life two days ago INSISTING that you needed my help, you bastard. And then she got me here now using her she-devil-witch-magic. I don't know what she plans to accomplish with that, because I'm leaving."

Naruto heard a chair scrape against the floor, so he steeled himself. If the bastard was standing up away from the desk; that probably meant that they were going to fight again, or something similar. But Naruto refused to initiate anything. He was determined to be the bigger man this time.

After a moment, Naruto heard the bastard say in a low voice, "I was told that you were moving back."

Without turning around, Naruto snorted with sarcastic laughter, "What? So I can abandon my life in Suna and relive all the _happy_ memories here? Who the hell even gave you that idea? I made it VERY clear to Sakura that I was leaving as soon as possible."

"Lee," the bastard replied.

"Fucking Lee!" Naruto exclaimed, banging a fist against the door. That guy really gossiped too much.

There was another bout of silence between the two men.

Naruto really should have used the opportunity to open the door and just _leave_ already. It was true that Sakura used her witch magic against him, and that he honestly had no intention of staying in this house, mansion, big place; _especially_ not in an enclosed room with the bastard. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to open the door. His stupid, fucking mind wouldn't let him. He kept thinking that this was the last time he would ever see Sasuke…

But even though he couldn't open the door just yet, he refused to let his traitor mind get the better of him. He would not turn around and see Sasuke.

Take that, traitor mind.

Then Naruto heard the bastard sneer, "You just want to leave so that you can go sleep around with men back in Suna."

Naruto immediately turned around and shouted, "You caught me! Because that's OBVIOUSLY what _all_ GAY men want!"

Now that he had turned around, Naruto could see that the bastard was standing between Naruto and the desk, and that Sasuke had scoffed at his reply.

Naruto glared at the bastard, and said, "Yes, I _am_ gay, and YES, I have gay sex with other _gay_ guys, because in Suna I don't HAVE to hide who I am!"

The bastard was meeting his gaze, but it was nearly impossible to tell what he was thinking because of his damn inexpressive Uchiha expression. Maybe if Naruto was calmer, he would have been able to decipher it like he had back when he still lived in Konoha, and he and the bastard were still best friends, but those days were gone, and Naruto was WAY too pissed off to even try to decipher the Uchiha mask.

"Which is just sad, by the way," Naruto continued, "that I couldn't be myself in Konoha. I couldn't even be myself with you, and you were supposed to be my best friend!"

"Those bonds were cut as soon as you left Konoha," said Sasuke, his voice was monotone and, like his expression, have no indication of what he was feeling; if bastards could feel.

"YOU cut that bond when YOU cut my _FACE_!" Naruto shouted back.

Silence enveloped them both again.

Naruto was breathing heavily. He needed to calm himself down. He would NOT let the bastard rile him up this time. He looked up and saw that the bastard was not meeting his eye this time.

Not that it mattered, since Naruto turned around again to face the door.

"Why?" he asked while facing the door. He would _not_ give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing how much just being in the same room affected him.

The bastard was silent.

"WHY?" Naruto asked again, balling his hands into fists.

Again, the bastard was silent.

But Naruto would not stand for that. He turned his head so that he could glare behind him and asked, "WHY did you give me these scars?"

The bastard was looking to the side with his expressionless Uchiha mask, and refused to say anything.

That set Naruto off. He turned the rest of his body around and jeered, "What? Is the manly bastard _afraid_ of the gay? Too _scared_ that being associated with the gay would make him a queer? That his GAY friend was in love with him?"

The bastard was still not looking at him, but at the last comment, his dark eyes narrowed a bit.

Naruto was too riled up to stop and he blurted out, "Because I meant that confession, you know! And you know the most fucked up part about that is? I STILL DO! Or at least the OLD Sasuke who was my friend!"

The bastard _still_ refused to look at Naruto! The only indication that he even heard Naruto was that his mask cracked a little and he was frowning at the wall.

"Well? SAY SOMETHING!" Naruto shouted.

He was mortified that he admitted out loud what he swore that he would never even _think_ to himself. He had no idea how to deal with this, his confession, and just _being_ in the same room as Sasuke! It was too much; especially since all that Naruto had really done for the past ten years was school himself against thinking about Konoha and Sasuke.

The only way he knew how to deal with the situation was to go back to his old comfort zone and start a fight. He knew how to deal with those situations.

A fight would be better than this. ANYTHING would be better than this! This was unacceptable! It was simply unacceptable that the bastard had riled him up _again_ and made him confess THAT…and that the bastard had yet to say anything!

"SAY SOMETHING!" Naruto shouted again.

The bastard was silent, and refused to meet his eye.

Naruto shouted a wordless roar and grabbed the closest picture on the wall and threw it to the ground.

The bastard did not react.

Naruto shouted again in frustration and moved along the wall, knocking over anything in his way; pictures, diplomas, side-tables, anything.

He moved to the bookshelves behind the desk and started throwing the books to the floor.

Naruto turned around, breathing very heavily, glaring at the bastard; daring him to challenge him.

The bastard still refused to look at him.

Naruto shouted again, and lunged for the desk. He swept his arm across the top and knocked everything off of it.

He looked up, glaring. This time, the bastard met his eye, though the bastard was not glaring. Instead, the bastard was staring at him with that expressionless mask again, and Naruto was only imagining the regret that the bastard was not capable of feeling.

Naruto reached for the top drawer and pulled it out roughly.

"Stop," the bastard said in a low tone. It was not threatening, like what Naruto was expecting.

"FUCK YOU!" Naruto shouted in response, flinging the entire drawer at the floor. Papers, folders, pens, and other office materials flew out of it.

"Stop—" the bastard repeated with a little more urgency.

Naruto snarled at him, and ignored the order. He grabbed the next drawer and flung it to the ground as well. Folders with pages stapled together flew out of it.

He reached for the last drawer of the desk.

'Wait—" the bastard said, more urgency still in his voice. The bastard held up his hand as if to stop Naruto and started moving forward.

"WHY SHOULD I?" Naruto shouted in response. He flung the last drawer open and out of the desk and took a look inside since the bastard obviously didn't want him to see it.

When he looked down at the drawer in his hands, Naruto froze.

He couldn't believe it.

Looking back at him was a picture of himself and Sasuke from when they were kids…

Naruto looked up, shocked, at the bastard, who seemed to have frozen as well, and returned his attention to the picture.

It was taken after their first 'camping trip' to the lake, next to the little tent they were so proud to have set up by themselves. Little Naruto and little Sasuke were both smiling up at the camera with their arms flung over each other's shoulders.

Naruto held the drawer with one arm, and with the other hand, gingerly picked up the framed photograph.

"…What?" Naruto whispered, taken completely off guard.

He had always assumed that the bastard had gotten rid of anything to do with Naruto after their fight. After all, had Naruto decided to stay in Konoha, that was what he would have done. Instead, Naruto had simply left everything behind and let other people destroy physical memories of the bastard for him. Except for the chair; Naruto had destroyed the chair himself.

So why did the bastard have a picture of them from when they were kids in his bottom drawer?

Naruto looked up again, his eyes wide, silently asking for an explanation.

The bastard looked away, and there was silence between them.

Naruto was about to ask for an explanation out loud, when the bastard mumbled, "…I had trouble than I had thought letting go of the past…"

Naruto nodded, a bit numb. He didn't know what to make out of the explanation…but at least he had one…

He noticed that there was more stuff in the drawer, so he gently placed the picture upright on the desk. Then he pulled the drawer closer to himself, and picked up the next object.

It was an old notebook…with Naruto's handwriting on it…

He opened it up, and had to hold back a gasp. It was one of Naruto's first story notebooks… Naruto used to write down his story ideas and/or little snippets in any piece of spare paper he found, or in any notebook he had handy during class or detention, but this was the first notebook—a gift from Sasuke—that he had used exclusively for his stories…

He thought that it had been thrown away when he ran away from town and his apartment…

Naruto placed the notebook gently on the desk as well, and continued to look inside the drawer. He was surprised to see two more of his notebooks, and then he placed them on the desk too.

The last item in the drawer was a scrapbook. Naruto placed the empty drawer on the desk and held the scrapbook in his hands with wonder. He remembered making it with Sasuke… Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha were going on a business trip/vacation overseas, and were taking Itachi with them for part of the time, and Mrs. Uchiha wanted to know what sort of activities the two boys got into while they were gone…

Naruto opened to the last page, with a picture of Naruto jumping onto Sasuke's back as a last minute surprise while they were waving at the camera for Mrs. Uchiha. Back then, Naruto had loved it simply because he thought that it was hilarious that he had jumped on Sasuke's back when he wasn't expecting it. But now, Naruto could see that little Sasuke had a small smile on his face rather than the scowl he had originally thought.

…It was a nice picture…

Naruto looked up at the bastard again, silently asking for a longer explanation.

The bastard looked uncomfortable, and he was glaring at the wall again; but he seemed to get the message.

"Those are in the study because Shisui discovered them from storage one day, and he wanted to know more," the bastard mumbled to the wall.

"…What?" Naruto asked, confused. Why would Itachi's son care about Sasuke's old friend that left before the boy was even born?

The bastard continued, while still refusing to meet eye contact, "Itachi… My brother would show Shisui old family photo albums all the time, and you are in quite a lot of them. Shisui got curious and my brother had explained that you were my best friend, and that you were practically family. Then Shisui found those," the bastard gestured towards the items so carefully laid out on the desk, "from our old secret bas—from storage, and wondered where you went."

"…So what did you tell him?" Naruto asked, not completely sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

The bastard finally made eye contact, then he walked forward, towards the desk.

Naruto held back a flinch, but braced himself. He was fully prepared to defend himself long enough to be able to leave the room.

The bastard kept eye contact while he walked around the desk, and stopped by the opposite corner of Naruto.

Then he gestured towards the bookshelf behind the desk.

Naruto looked to where the bastard was gesturing, and his eyes widened. He was surprised to see that the shelf had two copies of each of the books he had written.

He turned to look at the bastard again, silently asking to elaborate.

"I told him that you are an author in Suna," said the bastard.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he glared at the man in front of him. "So you didn't tell him what happened?" he asked coldly. If Naruto was being rational, he would have known better than to ask an uncle to tell his nephew that his old best friend ran away to Suna because he had cut his face and told the friend to never return since he was a fag; but Naruto was _not_ thinking rationally, and was merely focusing on not kicking the other in the nuts.

The bastard's expressionless mask broke a little and a small amount of pain or regret broke through as he asked, "How could I? How could I tell him that his uncle—" he cut himself off and looked to the side.

"What?" Naruto sneered, "That his uncle once knew a _FAG_?"

"That his uncle was gay for his best friend!" the bastard exclaimed, looking back at Naruto with his dark eyes wide.

Naruto's own eyes widened significantly as he dropped the scrapbook from his hands.

The bastard said what? He—what?

"What?" Naruto whispered.

He was confused. What the bastard had said confused him. Everything was confusing.

The bastard hated him because Naruto was gay. That was a FACT!

Naruto was kicked out of town because he was gay. The bastard was a homophobe.

Naruto Namikaze had stayed up many nights and had to take many, many walks throughout the city of Suna to clear his mind of any thoughts about Sasuke because he was the bastard who cut Naruto's cheeks because he had confessed his GAY love to Sasuke…

But now…

No. It was a lie.

The bastard was speaking lies.

He was working with Sakura to get Naruto to stay or whatever since her witch magic was losing its effect on Naruto. Or the bastard just wanted to mess with Naruto's head as a last form of revenge or spite since Naruto had announced that he was leaving for good this time!

It was the only thing that made sense!

Because the bastard would _NOT_ say anything about being gay.

He just wouldn't.

It was a lie.

With that in mind, Naruto hardened himself against the bastard's words. That lie might have thrown him through a loop, but that was only because he was not expecting anything like that. He was expecting a physical brawl; not lies about being gay.

"What?" Naruto asked again, but his tone significantly darker; daring the bastard to lie again.

The bastard held the eye contact, his expression the Uchiha form of beseeching, and said, "I'm in love with you, Naruto."

Naruto scoffed in his mind, and glared at the bastard in response. It was all lies.

"I have been for a long time, ever since we were twelve," the bastard continued to say, "but I couldn't do anything about my feelings for you because I'm an Uchiha, and I was expected to follow in my father's and brother's footsteps and help run the company and produce heirs. So I repressed my feelings as much as I could. But then…then during the summer before senior year, you said that you loved me as well, and it was too much for me to handle—"

"So you fucking cut my FACE?!" Naruto shouted.

The bastard flinched, and did not respond.

Naruto scoffed and made a show about rolling his eyes. "You can cut the crap and stop lying because I'm _not_ buying it," he said.

The bastard's eyes widened, and he said, "This isn't a lie!"

"Yeah, _suuuuuuuure_ it isn't," Naruto mocked in a sarcastic tone.

"It is the truth!" the bastard insisted, "After my parents died, Itach—my brother confronted me and said that I did not have to be the perfect Uchiha that Father demanded of us. Then later, Shisui was born, so the Uchiha legacy was guaranteed and—"

"SAVE IT!" Naruto shouted, unwilling to hear anything else. So the bastard gets the okay from his brother and suddenly it's okay to be gay? Please.

Even _IF_ that was feasible, it did not matter, because everything the bastard was saying was lies.

Naruto glared at the bastard one more time and said, "I've had enough of this place, and I've _definitely_ had enough of YOU! I'm outa here."

With that, Naruto turned his back to the bastard and tried to make his way to the door.

"WAIT!" the bastard called out. Naruto could hear him approaching from behind him.

"FUCK YOU!" Naruto retorted, speeding up.

Then he felt a hand grabbing his arm.

Naruto tried to yank it out of the bastard's grip, but the bastard was holding on tight.

So in retaliation, Naruto swept a leg behind him, hoping to trip the bastard.

His leg got contact, but it was only hard enough to bruise Naruto's foot and hopefully the bastard's calf as well.

After he kicked the bastard, he tried to lean his body as far away as he could while his arm was being pulled behind him.

Then he felt the other hand wrap around his other arm, so he shouted, "LET _GO_!"

The bastard did not say anything in response. Instead, he tugged on one of the arms and pushed on the other; guiding Naruto's body to spin around.

Naruto tried to get his footing so that the bastard could not pull a douche move and fucking catch him like some dumb damsel. But he was so concentrated on not falling over that he did not notice the bastard letting go of one of the arms to hold the back of his head.

When he felt the hand on his head, Naruto jumped a little and tried to do his best to dislodge the offending limb.

But the bastard's hand was pushing against his head, while the bastard himself leaned in.

Naruto barely had enough time to suck his lips behind his teeth before the bastard kissed him.

Fucking KISSED him.

Naruto was filled with so much indignant rage that he did not bother to be shocked by the action or ask himself why.

The bastard's eyes were closed, but Naruto's eyes were open and he was glaring the hell out of the lying, kissing bastard.

Naruto curled a hand into a fist and punched that bastard in the gut.

The bastard stopped pressing his lips against Naruto's face and couched to the side, but he was still stubbornly holding onto Naruto's arm and the back of his blond head.

Naruto snarled, and then he did what he _should_ have done ten years ago.

He kicked the bastard in the groin.

The bastard grunted, and let go of Naruto completely as he fell to his knees, curling into himself a little.

Naruto wiped the saliva left from the bastard's attempt at a kiss from his face with his sleeve and spat at the bastard.

"Fuck you, Uchiha," Naruto snarled, and he turned around, leaving the room; and the Uchiha Mansion for the last time.

* * *

**And that was the chapter.**

**As some of you have picked up on, I am taking a break from this story. It'll be a blurse, as I want to update/finish my other stories that I have been neglecting in favor of this story. So for those of you who were getting frustrated at me for not updating those, sorry! But I'll get right on that! Plus, I need to make an actually effective outline instead of my meager notes haha.**

**Anyway, thank you for those who favorite/alerted this story! And a SUPER FLASHY COOL thanks to those who reviewed! You guys are my favorite!**


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